' LI BRARY OF CONGRE SS. |[ 



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l| UNITED STATES OF AMEKICA.JI 



WORDS IN SEASON. 



Words in Season: 



■f/j* 



A MANUAL OF 



INSTRUCTION, COMFORT AND DEVOTION, FOR 
FAMILY READING AND PRIVATE USE. 



HENRY B. BROWNING, M. A., 

Rector of St. George with St. Paul, Stamford, England. 



"A word spoken in due season, how good is it !" — Prov. xv. 23. 




PHILADELPHIA 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 

1870. 



■ 31? 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year i8bg, by 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern 
District of Pennsylvania. 



lip pincott's press, 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



I. Self- Knowledge 7 

II. The Divine Saviour 13 

III. The Physician of Souls 19 

IV. Christ the Giver of Rest 25 

V. The Way of Salvation 30 

VI. Jesus the Good Shepherd 36 

VII. The New Birth. 41 

VIII. Present Suffering and Future Glory 47 

IX. The Valley of the Shadow of Death 50 

X. The Mortal Body and the Immortal Soul 58 

XL Forgiveness of Sins 64 

XII. Perfect Peace 70 

XIII. God alone the Soul's satisfying Portion 75 

XIV. Spiritual Growth 81 

XV. Sin Blotted Out 87 

XVI. Christian Assurance 93 

XVII. The Providential Purpose of Affliction 99 

XVIII. The Sympathy of Christ 105 

XIX. All Things working together for Good no 

XX. The Inheritance of the Saints 116 

1* 5 



6 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

XXI. The High and Lofty One Dwelling with the Hum- 
ble and Contrite 123 

XXII. Joy in Christ 129 

XXIII. The Love of God in the Gift of his Only-begotten 

Son 135 

XXIV. The Lessons of Gethsemane 141 

XXV. Crucified with Christ 147 

XXVI. The Great Reconciliation 154 

XXVII. The Ascension 162 

XXVIII. Necessity of Good Works 169 

XXIX. Conditions of Acceptable Obedience 175 

XXX. The Law of Growth and Happiness 181 

XXXI. Sins of Believers 188 

XXXII. Confession of Sin 195 

XXXIII. God in Christ 201 

XXXIV. Prayer 207 

XXXV. Genuine and Apparent Truths 213 

XXXVI. Harmony of the Divine Attributes 220 

XXXVII. Judgment after Death 227 

XXXVIII. Love to God and the Neighbor 233 

XXXIX. The Lord's Glorification the Pattern and the effi- 
cient Cause of Man's Regeneration 239 

XL. Creation and Preservation 245 



Words in Season. 



i. 

SELF-KNO WLED GE. 




" Search me, O God, and know my heart : try me, and know my 
thoughts : and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in 
the way everlasting." — Psalm cxxxix. 23, 24. 

IHE purpose for which God has given his Word 
to men, is; first, that they might know God; 
and second, that they might know themselves. 
The value of self-knowledge cannot be overrated. 
Only as we know ourselves can we learn to know and 
appreciate the mercies of God. Unless we know how 
sinful we are, we can never desire to repent. Until we 
realize in our own experience what an evil and bitter 
thing is sin, how it corrupts the soul, how it turns us 
away from God and all goodness, how it makes us fain 
to satisfy our hunger with the husks that the swine do 
eat, we shall never wish to arise and go to our Father. 
Unless we know our own deep heart-wants, we can never 
realize the blessedness of having those wants supplied. 
Every grace of meekness, of godly sorrow, of humility, 
and of spiritual hunger, implies self-knowledge. We be- 

7 



8 WORDS IN SEASON. 

come meek when we know how prone we are to folly ; 
when we see ourselves poor and blind and naked in 
spiritual things ; when we realize how continually we 
need to depend on the saving help of God. We mourn 
when we know how our transgressions have separated us 
from God, robbed us of our inheritance, disturbed our 
peace, and marred our joy. We become humble in 
knowing how weak and erring and unworthy we are. 
We hunger and thirst after righteousness, when we know 
how much we need to be guided by Him who is "the 
Way," to be taught by Him who is "the Truth," to be 
sustained by Him who is "the Life!" The blessings 
promised to the meek and the mourners, to the humble 
and hungry, are thus dependent on our knowledge of 
ourselves. "Give me a wise and understanding heart," 
should, therefore, be the prayer of every one. 

To know ourselves needs self-examination. We ought 
not to be satisfied with a merely general confession of 
our follies and failings, of our sins of omission and com- 
mission, of our faults of temper, of speech, of action. 
We ought to look thoroughly into ourselves, and learn 
the very sin we have committed, the very law we have 
broken, the very fault of which we have been guilty. 
We ought to pray for the pardon of that sin ; to watch ' 
ourselves lest we fall again into the commission of that 
sin ; to beseech help from the Lord that we may over- 
come that precise evil. 

The duty of self-examination is enjoined in this prayer 
of David. It does not merely mean that we wish God to 
search us and know our hearts, to try us and know our 
thoughts, to see if there be any wicked way in us. God 



SELF-KNO WEED GE. 9 

knows this already, without our asking Him. His sleep- 
less eyes see our inmost feelings; He knows our most 
secret thoughts; we cannot hide ourselves from Him. 
The wings of the morning cannot carry us beyond his 
knowledge. To Him the darkness is as the light. Neither 
the uttermost parts of the earth, nor even hell can con- 
ceal us from his Spirit. He knoweth our downsitting 
and our uprising. Like an open book, all that we feel 
and think and say and do lies before Him. The most 
solemn thought that can come to us, when about, to sin, 
is this : " Thou God seest me!" 

The prayer means that God would enable us so to 
search our hearts that we, too, may see ourselves as He 
sees us, and know ourselves to be what He knows us 
to be. This means that we wish to see ourselves in 
heavenly light ; that all self-delusion should be banished 
from us. Unhappy is that man who is like the Laodi- 
ceans of whom the Lord spake: "Thou sayest, I am 
rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing ; 
and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable 
and poor and blind and naked." Rev. hi. 17. 

Viewed in this light, the text is very important and 
wonderfully comprehensive. It asks for a searching of 
the heart — for all our desires, dispositions, affections, in- 
clinations, to be laid open before us. Happy is the man 
who knows- the infirmities of his own heart, and who is 
thereby led to watch against the first approaches of evil, 
ever bearing in mind the injunction of the wise man: 
" Keep thy heart with all diligence ; for out of it are the 
issues of life." Prov. iv. 23. 

The prayer asks for a trying of the thoughts. Impure 



io WORDS IN SEASON. 

and evil thoughts come to us from wicked spirits; and 
sometimes we cannot prevent them. We are not guilty 
if their presence troubles us, and if we resist them as 
temptations of the evil one. But if we foster them, turn 
them about in our minds, take pleasure in thinking them, 
and wish to carry them out into practice, then, alas ! the 
temptation is only too successful, and we fall into sin. 
We need then to pray earnestly for help to "resist the 
devil," that he may flee from us. It shows us that we 
are not altogether clean, that we are not yet beyond the 
reach of evil. This we shall never be, until we find our 
refuge in heaven, "where the wicked cease from troub- 
ling and the weary are at rest. ' ' 

The prayer asks to see if there be "any wicked way" 
in us. Sins of act are evil desires carried out and com- 
pleted. They are more grievous than sins of feeling and 
sins of thought. They confirm the evil states of will and 
mind. They often inflict injury on others as well as on 
ourselves. Some of those injuries cannot be wiped away 
by repentance ; just as no remorse and no contrition on 
the part of a murderer can bring his victim to life. Pre- 
vent your wicked desires from becoming wicked deeds. 
' This is the first step upward. He who shuns an evil 
deed, and will not utter a wicked word, because they are 
sins against God, has begun to conquer evil and himself. 

Thus the prayer includes the whole life of man — his 
desires, his thoughts, his deeds. First, his heart, because 
the root of all sin is there : second, his thoughts, because 
wicked lusts take form in wicked thoughts : third, his 
conduct, for it is in this that wicked desires and thoughts 
are carried out. They who truly pray this prayer desire 



SELF-KNO WEED GE. 1 1 

to know themselves within and without ; they seek to shun 
evil in its origin and in its effects. Very impressive is the 
description by St. James of the beginning and end of 
sin: "Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of 
his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath con- 
ceived it bringeth forth sin : and sin, when it is finished, 
bringeth forth death." Jas. i. 14, 15. 

The prayer ends with the petition — "Lead me in the 
way everlasting. ' ' We seek to know our sins, to know 
our proneness to sin, our weakness and our wants, and 
then the full heart cries to God — "Lead me in the way 
everlasting. ' ' Our knowledge that He alone can help us 
in our sinfulness and weakness, impels us to go to Him. 
And the sweet assurance is given to us: "Him that 
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." John vi. 37. 



PRAYER. 

O most merciful and all-seeing Lord Jesus Christ, 
Thou knowest our sinfulness and weakness, and our need 
of thy mercy and grace. Thou hast been touched with 
the feeling of our infirmities ; and having Thyself suffered, 
being tempted, Thou art able to succor them that are 
tempted. Thou wilt in no wise cast out those who come 
unto Thee. While we feel how poor and blind and 
naked we are, we can yet trust thy loving-kindness ; for 
we know that Thou art plenteous in mercy, full of com- 
passion, and ever ready to forgive. 

Help us, O Lord, to know our hearts, that in thy 
light we may see our motives, dispositions, and desires. 



12 WORDS IN SEASON. 

Enable us to hate the evil and love the good. Turn out 
the strong man armed from within our hearts, and do 
thou enter in and reign. 

Help us to try our thoughts. Enable us to turn from 
all that is evil and unholy, and to meditate with pleasure 
on all that is good and peaceable and pure. Purge our 
minds, good Lord, and make them clean in thy sight. 

Keep our feet from falling, our mouths from speaking 
foolishness, our hands from doing wrong. Make us quick 
to discern whatever is contrary to thy will, and enable us 
to resist and shun it. 

Lead us in the way everlasting. Reveal to us more 
and more thy will concerning us, and help us to take 
pleasure therein. Give us that deep knowledge of our- 
selves which will ever impel us to seek thy help, and to 
cast all our care upon Thee. Thus glorify Thyself in us, 
that we also may glorify Thee, our ever adorable Saviour 
and Lord. Amen. 




II. 

THE DIVINE SAVIOUR. 

" Thou shalt call his name Jesus : for he shall save his people 
from their sins." — Matthew i. 21. 

|F men were not sinners there would be no 
need of a Saviour. Only the sick have need 
of a physician. Seeing how sin destroys men, 
making them base and bad here, and fitting them only 
for misery hereafter, God took pity upon his creatures, 
and came into the world to save them. He came to save 
men from sin ; not merely from the punishment which sin 
brings upon the sinner, but from sin itself. Wrong-doing 
must ever produce misery. To take away the misery, 
God must cleanse man from that which is the cause of it. 
This is what Jesus Christ is continually striving to do — to 
make us happier by making us better. The love of doing 
evil is contrary to every purpose which God had in 
making man. It is a state of spiritual disease. Man 
cannot enjoy bodily comfort while his body is diseased ; 
neither can he be truly happy while his soul is disordered. 
Jesus is the good Physician, because He came to heal our 
souls. He will save us from our sins. 

Jesus is a Divine Saviour. It is a blessed thought that 
He who created man came down from heaven in or.der 
that He might save him. None but the Almighty could 
2 13 



1 4 WORDS IN SEASON. 

make man, and none but the Almighty can make him a 
new creature. To fill the soul with light and joy, with 
peace and happiness, with contentment and good desires, 
needs an ability which is Divine. These blessings flow 
from a new life in the soul ; and who can give life but 
God ? Only He who gave life tu Lazarus at first, could 
restore life to Lazarus when dead. Just so it is with man's 
soul. "It is "dead in trespasses and sins." Eph. ii. i. 
It has no good thing in it. To call it from its grave 
requires Divine power ; and Jesus the life-giver is Jesus 
the Lord, "the only wise God our Saviour." Jude 25. 

Not only is Jesus able to save all who come to Him, 
but He is also willing. He invites us to come : " Come 
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I 
will give you rest." Matt. xi. 28. When we feel that 
our life of sin is painful and hard, that the burden of our 
sins is heavy, that the troubles of our souls are more than 
we can bear, and we want a friend and comforter — then 
we need but to come to Jesus, and He will give us rest. 
This rest is deliverance from sin, and so from the dis- 
'quietude and misery which are inseparable from sin. We 
can see how willing He is to save, when we consider that 
at the very time when men were perishing in their sins 
and would not go to God for help, God came down to 
them in order that He might help them. He came to 
seek men when men would not seek Him ; and when all 
were lost, He came into the world that He might save 
them. Can you conceive of greater willingness to save 
than this ? A mother is willing to do anything to save 
her child ; but the love of God toward his children is 
far greater than the love of mothers. God is all-loving ; 



THE DIVINE SAVIOUR. 1 5 

and love ever yearns to help and bless those who are 
beloved. The Lord teaches us this: " Can a woman 
forget her sucking child, that she should not have com- 
passion on the son of her womb ? Yea, they may forget, 
yet will I not forget thee." Isa. xlix. 15. Even when 
the Jews had rejected Jesus, and would not have Him for 
their Saviour, He loved them so truly that He mourned 
over them and said: " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou 
that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent 
unto thee ! how often would I have gathered thy chil- 
dren together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens 
under her wings, and ye would not!" Matt, xxiii. 37. 
How willing must He be to save, who, when His enemies 
had nailed Him to the cross, had no other wish concern- 
ing them than this : "Father, forgive themj for they 
know not what they do." Luke xxiii. 34. Jesus reveals 
the infinite love of God, and the infinite mercy of God ; 
and that love and that mercy desire that all should come 
unto Him and be saved. If any are not saved, it is be- 
cause they will not come. 

All men need to be saved. What a blessed thing life 
would be if there were no evil in men's hearts ! Earth 
would be like heaven if all men loved goodness and de- 
lighted in doing good ; if there were no crimes, no need 
for suspicion or fear ; if each one sought the welfare of 
all ; if there were no unkindness, harshness, or injustice ; 
no selfishness, cruelty, or wrong ; no cause for sorrow, 
and no tears. Man was once in this condition. But evil 
has broken into the world ; wicked desires are felt and 
worked out ; bad passions rage and burn ; every kind of 
sin is practiced ; and men show a fiendish cleverness in 



1 6 WORDS IN SEASON. 

finding out new ways of wrong-doing. Even the best 
men feel sad at the bad thoughts which sometimes come 
into their minds, at the wicked feelings which sometimes 
rise up in their hearts. They cry out with the apostle : 
' ' O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from 
the body of this death?" Rom. vii. 24. Salvation is 
needed by all; the double salvation offered by Jesus 
Christ — salvation from sin here and from its consequences 
hereafter. 

Salvation from sin implies a total change in the nature 
of man ; a change from hating what is good to hating 
what is evil — from loving what is wrong to loving what is 
right. How then is this change to be wrought in man's 
soul ? It is God, even the Lord Jesus Christ, who saves. 
We cannot save ourselves. And even the Lord cannot 
save us from sin and misery, unless we are willing to be 
saved. The Jews were not saved, because they would not 
come to Jesus that they might have life. 

And not only must we submit ourselves to the Lord's 
working in our souls, but we ourselves have something to 
do. Man's part in the great work of salvation is plainly 
shown in the Bible. We have to believe that we are sin- 
ners needing salvation : we have to strive to shun every- 
thing that is evil, not merely because it is hurtful to our- 
selves, but because it is a sin against the Lord : we have 
to pray to the Lord Jesus for light and strength, that we 
may know what is contrary to His will, and that in every 
temptation we may be enabled to resist and overcome. 
The prayer will be heard and answered. Out of weak- 
ness we shall grow strong ; out of darkness He will lead 
us into light. The grace may seem small at first; but 



THE DIVINE SAVIOUR. 1 7 

we can "grow in grace." Our knowledge and our peace 
may not at first seem much ; but our knowledge will in- 
crease and our peace will deepen. We shall grow to be 
keener-sighted in detecting what is wrong : we shall grow 
more prayerful to Jesus to help us shun what is wrong : 
and we shall not only be able, by the might of the Lord, 
to avoid sinful deeds, but He will also cleanse our hearts 
from sinful desires, and fill us with the love of all that is 
good, and with the joy that good alone can bring. Thus 
shall we find Him to be unto us a Saviour from sin. 



PRAYER. 

O most merciful and loving Saviour, who dost desire 
that all men should come unto Thee and be saved ; who 
dost ever hear the prayer of the humble, and dost hearken 
unto the cry of the penitent ; who wiliest not the death of 
a sinner, but that all should turn unto thee and live ! we 
adore thy boundless compassion and implore thy pardon- 
ing grace. We confess our sinfulness before Thee. With 
broken and contrite hearts we would approach thy throne, 
trusting alone in thy tenderness and power, knowing that 
Thou art willing to help, and be able to save to the utter- 
most all who come unto Thee. Our wants impel us to 
come unto Thee, Lord Jesus, and thy mercy bids us 
hope. Save us from our sins, we beseech Thee. Cleanse 
our hearts from every evil wish. Purge our minds from 
every wicked thought. Let no evil obtain dominion over 
us. Help us to show forth thy praise in all that we say 
and do. Thou hast Thyself suffered, being tempted, and 

2 » B 



1 8 WORDS IN SEASON. 

art able to succor them that are tempted ; help, by thy 
great power, all who approach unto Thee. While we 
are in the world, keep us unspotted from the world, and 
afterward receive us unto life. All this we ask, O mer- 
ciful Saviour, for thy loving-kindness' sake. Amen. 





III. 

THE PHYSICIAN OF SOUIS. 

" They that are whole need not a physician ; but they that are sick. 
I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." — Luke 
v. 3h 32. 

pUST as the body is subject to many diseases, so 
also is the soul. Just as the body in a diseased 
state needs a physician, so also a physician is 
needed to heal the disorders of the soul. There are 
many striking analogies between the diseases to which the 
body is subject, and the diseases which afflict the souls 
of men. 

Sometimes people have an appetite for things unfit for 
human food. This is called a depraved appetite ; it in- 
dicates a state of disease. How many and how terrible 
are the depraved appetites of the soul ! Every sinful deed 
we desire to do, every wicked indulgence we crave to get, 
reveals to us one of these depraved appetites. The exist- 
ence of so many of these depraved appetites, shows how 
completely the soul is diseased. 

Is there not a striking resemblance between a state of 
inflamed passions and a burning fever? There is an 
atrophy in which food ceases to nourish the body ; there 
is also a deadness of heart in which spiritual food ceases 
to nourish the soul. There is a leprosy without; and sin 

19 



20 WORDS IN SEASON. 

itself is a leprosy within. These analogies are not fanciful 
nor far-fetched. They strike the mind of every one who 
thinks at all. 

If we can see the truth of this, a glorious thought will 
follow it. Jesus Christ healed men's bodies of their vari- 
ous infirmities, to show us that He, as the Physician of 
souls, will also heal our spiritual infirmities. Did He 
give sight to the blind ? We are spiritually blind ; and to 
Him must we go to obtain sight. Did He cleanse the 
lepers ? We are suffering from the leprosy of sin ; and 
He will cleanse all those who say to Him, " Lord, if Thou 
wilt, thou canst make me clean." Did He give strength 
to the trembling limbs of the palsied ? We, too, tremble 
and totter, powerless to make spiritual progress ; and He 
will say to us, "Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be for- 
given thee. Arise, take up thy bed and walk." Are we 
impotent to do good ? He who healed the man by the 
pool of Bethesda, will also heal us. Is our spiritual 
strength wasting away, and have we in vain tried all sorts 
of remedies for this disease of the soul? He who said, 
"Go in peace," to the woman who had the issue of 
blood, will also heal us of our plague. Are we dead in 
trespasses and sins, so as even to be far gone in spiritual 
corruption? He who said, "Lazarus, come forth," to 
him who had been dead four days, can and will call to 
newness of life the soul that seemed beyond all reach 
of hope. 

If we can see the symbolism of disease, every miracle 
of healing which Jesus wrought becomes a promise of a 
parallel miracle which may be wrought by the Saviour in 
our souls. The miracles thus serve as so many illustra- 



THE PHYSICIAN OF SOULS. 21 

tions of the Lord's declaration that He is the Physician 
of souls. 

The help of a physician is necessary only in a state of 
disease. "They that are whole need not a physician; 
but they that are sick." It was because men's spiritual 
diseases had reached their height, that Jesus came to heal 
them. Just as a physician goes where the patients are 
when the patients cannot come to him, so God in Christ 
came down to earth when man was in such extremity that 
no other means could save. Think of this proof of God's 
infinite love ! Because we were enemies, He came to 
reconcile us to Himself. Because we were diseased, He 
came to heal us. Because we were dead, He came that 
we might have life. 

Spiritual disease is not merely sin as an occasional act, 
but sinfulness as an abiding state — sinful affections, sinful 
thoughts, sinful habits. It pervades all the powers and 
faculties of the soul. "The whole head is sick and the 
whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto 
the head, there is no soundness in it ; but wounds, and 
bruises, and putrefying sores." Isa. i. 5, 6. In forming 
the souls of men, their Creator designed that they should 
love what is good, think what is true, and do what is 
right. Thus to love, think, and do, is to be in spiritual 
health ; and the result is happiness and peace. All the 
misery, remorse, disquietude, and sorrow that are in the 
world, only show how far men's souls are from a healthy 
state. 

If we know what our disease is, we can see what will be 
the real nature of our recovery. Salvation from sin is 
what we need. Not only salvation from the habit of sin- 



22 WORDS IN SEASON. 

ning, but from the very inclination to commit sin. Sal- 
vation is derived from a Latin word which means health. 
It signifies the restoration of man to a state of spiritual 
health ; the making whole of a soul now diseased and 
dying ; the cleansing of a soul from that condition of un- 
cleanness which is now its calamity and curse. This is 
what Jesus came to effect. Hence Jesus is the great 
Physician, willing and able to cleanse and heal our souls. 

But before a sick man will consent to see a physician, 
or to go to him for aid, he must be convinced that he is 
really sick. We need, therefore, to be convinced of the 
diseased condition of our souls, before we shall wish to 
go to Jesus or for Jesus to come to us. Sin is so deceitful 
a thing that many prefer it to a state of spiritual health ; 
just as many would rather be intoxicated than sober, or 
under the illusions of opium rather than controlled by 
reason. We must see that we are sinners, that sin is a 
diseased, hateful, and dangerous condition, before we 
shall be willing to go to Jesus, the merciful and loving 
Physician of our souls. 

When a physician undertakes a case, he gives directions 
which the patient is expected carefully to observe : so 
with Jesus who has given us instructions in his Word, and 
requires us to obey them. The first thing which every 
wise physician directs is, that the patient leave off every- 
thing which aggravates the disease : so with Jesus, whose 
first direction to us is, to cease from sin. The patient 
must have full confidence in the physician : so all our 
trust must be placed in Jesus, in his willingness and 
power to heal. 

Thus repentance, which consists in examining ourselves 



THE PHYSICIAN OF SOULS. 23 

and shunning everything that is evil because it is a sin 
against the Lord; and faith, which, in doing the work of 
repentance, continually looks to the Lord for direction 
and help, are the joint conditions of our spiritual re- 
covery. Even the great Physician of souls cannot heal 
those who will not follow his directions nor look to Him 
for aid. The power of the Lord is ever present to heal ; 
but it works effectually in those only who repent and 
believe in Him. 

Those who thus go to Jesus and follow his directions, 
and in so doing realize his help, may exclaim with the 
Psalmist, "Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is 
within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my 
soul ? and forget not all his benefits ; who forgiveth all 
thine iniquities ; who healeth all thy diseases ; who re- 
deemed! thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee 
with loving-kindness and tender mercies." Ps. ciii. 1-4. 



PRAYER. 



Ever merciful and Almighty Lord Jesus Christ, we 
come to Thee as the good Physician from whom pro- 
ceeds that Divine and healing virtue by which our souls 
are purified and renewed. We acknowledge that of our- 
selves we are nothing but evil ; the whole head is sick 
and the whole heart faint. Were it not for Thee we must 
die in our sins, and have our part where the worm dieth 
not and the fire is not quenched. But with Thee there 
is mercy and plenteous redemption. As Thou didst on 
earth cast out devils, and heal all manner of sickness and 



24 WORDS IN SEASON. 

disease among the people, so now, by thy Divine power, 
deliver us from our spiritual enemies, and work corre- 
sponding miracles of healing in our souls. Help us to 
repent and believe in Thee, that our hearts may be open 
to receive thy saving health. Purge out all evil affec- 
tions from our hearts, all evil thoughts from our minds, 
all evil habits from our lives. Implant in us every holy 
disposition, and daily increase in us thy manifold gifts of 
grace, that we may go from strength to strength until we 
appear before Thee in glory. 

All this we ask, O merciful Saviour, in thy own name 
and for thy loving-kindness' sake. Amen. 




IV. 




CHRIST THE GIVER OF REST 

" Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I am 
meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For 
my yoke is easy and my burden is light. — Matthew xi. 28-30. 

LL the blessings promised by the Saviour are 
exactly suited to our wants. So completely is 
this the case, that a consideration of these bless- 
ings shows to us our spiritual state, our nature and its 
possibilities — both what we are and what we may become. 
Thus the gospel is not only a revelation of mercy, but a 
means of conviction, a mirror in which we may see our- 
selves. In its promises of pardon we see our guilt; in its 
promises of strength we see our weakness ; in its promises 
of salvation we see our lost and ruined state. In this 
adaptation of the gospel to our nature and its needs, we 
have convincing proof that the Creator of man and the 
Author of the gospel is one and the same God. 

The invitation in the text is in keeping with all the 
words of the Saviour. It is addressed to those that 
" labor and are heavy laden." When we feel that the 
effort to " resist the devil " is weary work ; when we lose 
courage and are almost inclined to give up the struggle ; 
when we feel that our sins hang like a load upon us and 

3 25 



26 WORDS IN SEASON. 

keep us down, and that our trials and afflictions are more 
than we can bear ; then tliis invitation fits our case. It is 
then that Jesus speaks to us in these words, and invites us 
to come unto him. When most we need pity, Jesus pities 
us. When we feel the weakest, Jesus comes to our help. 
This is the sweet way in which he proves how truly He 
loves us. 

It is the Lord Jesus who invites us to come. He is 
" Immanuel, God with us." He is "God manifest in 
the flesh ;" so that in Jesus, the Divine Man, we may see 
God, and know and love Him. The invisible God has 
made Himself visible in Jesus Christ. Being God, He 
has the right to command ; but he prefers to invite us to 
come unto Him. It is as if the infinite mercy of God 
entreated men to accept the blessing He is waiting to 
bestow. 

Being "the Almighty," having "all power in heaven 
and in earth," Jesus is able to fulfill his promise of giving 
"rest" unto all who come unto Him. He that trusteth 
in the Lord shall never be put to shame. All our real 
troubles come from within. If there were no causes of 
disquietude in ourselves when sickness or misfortune 
comes upon us, then outward trials would cease to be 
troubles. This is the way in which Jesus gives us rest. 
He imparts peace to the soul, and fixes it so deeply there 
that outward trials cannot disturb or vex it. He so fills 
the heart with trust in his love and goodness, that a man 
is lifted up above the influence of bodily suffering and 
worldly cares. Even though He sees it best that we 
should carry the cross a little longer and a little further, 
He helps to make it as light as is for our good. Just so 



CHRIST THE GIVER OF REST. 27 

soon as the sorrow or pain has done its work in our 
souls, He will take it away. " Our light affliction, which 
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding 
and eternal weight of glory." 2 Cor. iv. 17. Thus they 
who trust in Jesus and come unto Him, find rest unto their 
souls. 

Jesus not only tells us to come to Him, but he has left 
us an example that we should follow his steps. It is in 
imitating his example, in cultivating the mind that was 
in Him, that we shall find rest. He bids us be meek in 
spirit and lowly in heart, because He was "meek and 
lowly." Think of it ! He, the Almighty God, declares 
Himself to be meek and lowly ! He is as infinite in his 
meekness, as He is in his mercy ; as infinite in his low- 
liness, in his humility and condescension to man, as He 
is infinite in love ! How foolish are those who are 
proud, when God declares himself to be meek ! How 
pitiful is a man's boast of being great, when the 
Almighty declares Himself to be lowly ! What the Lord 
thinks of all such boasting, He has Himself told 
us: "Everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased, 
and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." Luke 
xviii. 14. He pronounces blessings on the poor in spirit, 
on the mourners, and on the meek: "Blessed are the 
poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
Blessed are they that mourn ; for they shall be comforted. 
Blessed are the meek ; for they shall inherit the earth. ' ' 
• Matt. v. 3-5. 

The yoke of the Lord Jesus must be borne by all who 
would become like Him. The apostle tells us, "It be- 
came Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all 



28 WORDS IN SEASON. 

things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the 
Captain of their salvation perfect through suffering." 
Heb. ii. 10. The Captain of our salvation, the Leader 
whose steps we are to follow, is Jesus Christ; and his 
human nature was made perfect through suffering. 
"Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by 
the things which he suffered ; and being made perfect, He 
became the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that 
obey Him." Heb. v. 8, 9. He suffered all temptations, 
all trouble, all trial, for our sakes. He set us a perfect 
example of patience, of trust in God, of obedience in 
will and deed. This is his "yoke" which we must take 
upon ourselves. 

In thus taking upon us Christ's yoke, and learning of 
Him, from his example as well as from his words, we find 
rest unto our souls. 

The Lord's yoke is easy and his burden is light. It is 
Satan that is a hard master : ' ' the way of transgressors 
is hard." To be in bondage to doubts, fears, worldly 
cares and troubles, to evil thoughts, feelings, and desires 
— this is slavery. In this slavery we get no help. God 
cannot help us so long as we love that which is evil \ and 
none but God can help. But if we take upon us the 
Lord's yoke, He will so fill us with the love of doing 
good and of being good, that we shall find it grow de- 
lightful to us. If we take up his burden, He will give 
us needful strength to bear it. God will be our helper ; 
and when we are weary we can lean on Him and renew 
our strength. We do not soon grow tired in doing what 
we love to do. This is what St. John felt when he said, 
"This is the love of God, that we keep his command- 



CHRIST THE GIVER OF REST. 29 

merits : and his commandments are not grievous. ' ' 1 John 
v. 2. When the love of Jesus is shed abroad in our 
hearts, then obedience to his words will be a joyous 
service. We shall joy in the Lord ; and his joy will be 
in us, and our joy will be full. 



PRAYER. 

O Thou tender and loving Lord Jesus, who dost invite 
all to come unto Thee and find rest, we humbly desire to 
draw nigh unto Thee. Remove from our minds every 
thought that hinders us from giving up ourselves unto 
Thee. Cleanse us, good Lord, from all those evils which 
prevent thy coming into us, and reigning in our souls. 
We labor and are heavy laden : our sins weigh heavily 
upon us. We confess our sins before Thee, and acknow- 
ledge how unworthy we are of the least of thy tender 
mercies. We trust only in thy love. Pardon us, O 
Lord, and give us thy help that Ave may take thy yoke 
upon us by following in thy footsteps; and take thy 
burden upon us by keeping thy Word whole and un- 
dented. Bring us to thy rest. May thy peace rule in 
our hearts, that we may be delivered from our sins. 
Make us meek and lowly, ever delighting in striving to 
become more and more like Thee. In all times of 
trouble be nigh unto us to help us, and teach us to cast 
all our care upon Thee who carest for us. Thus in 
obedience and suffering enable us to do thy will, to the 
glory of thy most holy name. Amen. 
3* 



V. 




THE WA Y OF SAL VA TION. 

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." — 
Acts xvi. 31. 

j|E are all creatures needing salvation. The dis- 
tinctions which exist among men, of young and 
old, rich and poor, wise and ignorant, are dis- 
tinctions which belong only to this life. When we think 
of men as immortal beings, whose future state will be 
determined by the character of their souls as to truth and 
goodness, as to faith and love, we may properly forget all 
other differences between them. Such differences are of 
no moment in view of man's eternal interest. All men 
are alike in this — they need a Saviour. 

When a sinner is first roused to a sense of his soul's 
danger, his chief anxiety is how to flee from the wrath to 
come. But the only way of escaping the consequences 
of sin, is by deliverance from sin itself. The salvation 
offered us in the gospel is therefore salvation from sin ; 
meaning by sin, not merely outward transgression of the 
Divine law, but sinful loves, sinful thoughts, sinful deeds 
— all that make up that state of sinfulness which, if con- 
firmed in this life, will bear the bitter fruits of misery in 
the life to come. 

The Saviour who will rescue men from sin here and 



THE WAT OF SALVATION. 3 1 

from misery hereafter, is the Lord Jesus Christ, unto 
whom "all power is given in heaven and in earth." 
Matt, xxviii. 18. What, then, must we do to be saved? 
This important question needs to be asked by all. The 
apostle answers it: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and thou shalt be saved." What are we to understand 
by this ? 

To believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, as here enjoined 
by the apostle, means to trust in Him for salvation. Not 
merely to trust in what He did for man more than 
eighteen hundred years ago, but to trust in Him for 
what He is willing and able to do for us now and for 
evermore. "For if, when we were enemies, we were 
reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, 
being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." Rom. 
v. 10. He reconciled us unto God by the cross : He 
will save us by his present operation in our souls. 

Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, implies on 
our part — 

(i) Conviction of sin and danger : not merely a general 
conviction that all men need salvation, but a personal 
and realizing conviction that we ourselves are sinners, and 
that "the wages of sin is death." The Holy Spirit strives 
to convince us of sin ; not only of sins committed by trans- 
gressing the laws of God, but of that crowning sin of not 
believing in Jesus, of rejecting Him and his great salva- 
tion. " He that believeth on Him is not condemned : but 
he that believeth not is condemned already, because he 
hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son 
of God." John hi. 18. How can we trust in Jesus as our 
Saviour if we do not feel that we are sinners, and that as 



32 WORDS IN SEASON. 

sinners we need to be saved from sin ? — from the power 
of sin, and from the penalty of sin ? 

(2) Willingness to part with sin at whatever cost. The 
Saviour showed this emphatically when He bade us pluck 
out a right eye, or cut off a right hand or foot, if they 
make us to offend. This means that when repentance is 
"unto salvation," it will be so thorough and deep that we 
shall be willing, at any cost of pain or effort, to banish 
every evil thought, to mortify every evil lust, to cease 
from every evil deed. Cross-bearing is the condition of 
discipleship. "Whosoever will come after me, let him 
deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." 
Mark viii. 34. 

(3) Desire to walk in newness of life. It is not 
enough that sincere repentance leads us to the ' ' straight 
gate;" we must strive to walk in the heavenly road. It 
is not enough that we "cease to do evil;" we must also 
"learn to do well." Hands were given us, not only 
that we should not do " the works of darkness," but that 
we should work the work of Him that sent us while it is 
day. Speech was given us, not only that we should 
not lie and cheat and blaspheme, but that our lips should 
" show forth his praise." Feet were given us, not only 
that we should not stand in " the way of sinners," but 
that we should walk in " the paths of righteousness." 

Trust in Jesus saves men, not because it is all that is 
needed, but because it opens our souls to receive from the 
Lord grace whereby we may be saved. It is that attitude 
of the soul toward Christ, which brings the convinced 
and repentant sinner under the influence of his saving 
power. " Behold, I stand at the door and knock : if any 



THE WAY OF SALVATION. 33 

man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to 
him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Rev. hi. 
20. Trust in Jesus opens the door of the heart for the 
waiting Saviour to come in. Jesus endues the soul which 
thus receives Him with his saving strength. Then the 
man is enabled by the Lord to conquer sin — to overcome, 
even as the Lord overcame — to press toward the mark of 
the prize of his high calling — to lay hold on eternal life. 

As salvation is a lifelong work, it is evident that a 
saving trust in Jesus is not merely a single act done once 
for all, but a habit of the soul, in the exercise of which 
salvation is progressively attained. There is indeed a 
turning-point in a man's spiritual history, when, realizing 
his lost and guilty state, he commits himself to the Lord 
Jesus Christ as his only Saviour from sin and ruin ; and 
resolves, in dependence on his ever-ready and all-suffi- 
cient help, no longer to live unto himself, but unto Him 
who died for him and rose again. In this great faith-act, 
involving in it all interior conditions essential to the in- 
ception of the Lord's saving grace, he passes from death 
unto life, John v. 24 ; he is delivered from the power of 
darkness, and is translated into the kingdom of God's 
dear Son. Col. i. 13. This, however, is only the begin- 
ning of salvation. If, thenceforth, the life he lives in the 
flesh he lives by the faith of the Son of God, who loved 
him and gave Himself for him — a faith which works by 
love, overcomes the world, and brings forth the fruits of 
righteousness — he will at last receive the end of his faith, 
the salvation of his soul. Hence to all who have entered 
on the narrow way that leadeth unto life, the Saviour 
says: "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee 
C 



34 WORDS IN SEASON. 

a crown of life." Rev. ii. 10. But "if after they have 
escaped the pollutions of the world through the know- 
ledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again 
entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse 
with them than the beginning. For it had been better for 
them not to have known the way of righteousness, than 
after they have known it, to turn from the holy com- 
mandment delivered unto them." 2 Peter ii. 20, 21. 

There are some who say they are waiting the Lord's 
time. They profess their willingness to be saved, and 
their hope that, at some time or other, the Lord will con- 
vert their souls. Let them not deceive themselves. The 
Lord is ever striving to save every man. That which is 
needed is, that men should "strive to enter in at the 
straight gate." The real reason why men do not enter 
is, that, though they wish to escape punishment, they do 
not wish to part with their sins. Continued delay is con- 
tinued resistance to the Spirit ; continued waiting is con- 
tinued danger to their souls. Such are the sleepers and 
dead men to whom the prophet and the apostle speak : 
"Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and 
Christ shall give thee light." Eph. v. 14. Christ waits 
for us to come unto Him and be saved. Our duty is not 
to wait, but to come. 



PRAYER. 

O most merciful and loving Lord Jesus Christ, who art 
the Redeemer of all men, and the Saviour of them that 
believe, we praise Thee for thy patience and long-suf- 



THE WAT OF SALVATION. '£$ 

fering, in that, notwithstanding our past abuse of thy 
mercy, we are still invited to come unto Thee and be 
saved. 

Open Thou our eyes, O Lord, to see how sinful we 
are. Show us the danger of an unrepentant state. Make 
us willing to part with every known sin, and to take up 
our cross and follow Thee. Help us to trust in Thee for 
salvation, and to co-operate with thy mercy, by resisting 
evil in all its forms, both inward and outward, as sin 
against Thee. O Lord, take possession of our hearts and 
draw our affections to Thyself. Give us such a true sense 
of our necessities as may render thy salvation precious, 
and such views of our high calling in Thee as may fill our 
hearts with joy and our lips with praise, and excite us to 
love Thee and to live unto Thee who died for us and rose 
again. 

Purify us by thy truth from all sordid and base affec- 
tions, and form us anew according to the order and spirit 
of heaven. Remove from us every evil influence, and 
every sphere arising from beneath, of coldness and indif- 
ference toward the things of truth and righteousness. 
And having been led by thy mercy through the straight 
gate, help us to walk in the narrow way that leadeth unto 
life. 

Thus prepare us, O Lord, for thy eternal kingdom of 
righteousness, purity and peace ; where Thou alone reign- 
est King of kings, and Lord of lords, the Fountain of love, 
wisdom, and blessedness — God over all, blessed for ever. 
Amen. 



VI. 




JESUS THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 

" I am the good Shepherd, and know my sheep and am known of 
mine." — John x. 14. 

j|OW helpless are " sheep that have no shepherd !" 
Even in countries where sheep are exposed to 
comparatively little harm, they need a shepherd's 
care. He has to tend them daily, to move them to fresh 
pastures, to heal those that are diseased, to go after those 
that are astray. But in Eastern lands the care and kind- 
ness of shepherds are much more necessary. Pasturage 
is wider, and the flocks often have to travel a long way to 
water. The enemies of the sheep are fiercer and more 
numerous. The shepherd has to be constantly with the 
flock. He knows the sheep of his flock, one from an- 
other, and could call each one by its name. The sheep 
learn to know the shepherd's voice and their own names, 
and will come to him when called. In journeying from 
one place of pasture to another, or to the place of water- 
ing, the shepherd goes before, and the sheep follow him. 
When the lambs grow weary, a good shepherd will take 
them in his arms and carry them, and will "gently lead 
those that are with young." 

It is needful to know these things, that we may under- 



JESUS THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 37 

stand the beautiful comparison which the Lord makes 
between Himself and a good shepherd. 

Jesus says : u Iam the good shepherd." The Psalmist 
says: "The Lord is my shepherd." Ps. xxiii. i. This 
shows that Jesus is the Lord, that is, Jehovah, the one 
living and true God, who came into the world. It is 
well to take note of this ; for then we can see that when 
we trust in the love and care of Jesus, the Good Shep- 
herd, we really put our trust in God. 

The Lord's true sheep are those who not only believe 
in Him, but also love and obey Him in whom they 
believe. Of these sheep we read that they know the 
Shepherd's voice. They know it is the Lord who speaks 
to them in the Bible, his most holy Word. They know 
it is the Lord who speaks to them in their consciences — 
telling them that they ought to shun this or that, because 
it is a sin against God ; or that they ought to do this or 
that, because it is commanded by God and is pleasing in 
his sight. 

They follow the Lord whithersoever He leads. To 
follow the Lord means to obey his voice, to be guided 
by his Word and Spirit, to imitate his example, to walk 
in his steps. Observe, the Lord Jesus does not compel 
us to do this ; He does not drive us into the right path ; 
that would destroy our freedom in spiritual things, which 
the Lord is most careful to preserve. He leads ; but the 
sheep may refuse to follow ; they may err and stray from 
his ways, and become "lost sheep." If the Lord could 
compel men to follow Him, and thereby save all, none 
would be lost. God's love would save all men ; for He 
"willeth not the death of a sinner, but that all should 
4 



3§ WORDS IN SEASON. 

be converted and live." But that would not be salva- 
tion, which man did not freely accept. Salvation is of 
the Lord ; but the condition of salvation is man's will- 
ingness to be saved — willingness, not merely to escape 
punishment, but to part with his sins. It is to this con- 
sent of the will that the Lord refers when He says : 
"The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him 
that is athirst, come. And whosoever will, let him take 
the water of life freely." Rev. xxii. 17. The Spirit of 
Jesus working in men's souls urges them to come ; the 
Bride, which is the Church, speaking through its minis- 
ters and members, invites them to come ; it is the duty 
of all who have heard the gracious offer to repeat it ; 
and whosoever will, is free to take the water of life. 

It is not enough merely to look to Jesus ; we must 
follow Him. If the sheep are to get to the green pas- 
tures and the still waters, they must journey where the 
shepherd leads. The Lord does not bring the green 
pastures and the still waters to his sheep while they are 
lying down in the desert. He leads them to spiritual 
comfort and plenty ; but they must follow Him to obtain 
these blessings. Too many wait, but do not walk : none 
can wonder if these be disappointed of their hope. 

As the Good Shepherd, Jesus fulfilled a great pro- 
phecy : " The Lord God will come. . . . He shall feed 
his flock like a shepherd : He shall gather the lambs 
with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall 
gently lead those that are with young." Isa. xl. 10, n. 
The Lord who created man, has given to him the power 
of receiving from Himself all precious spiritual blessings 
— such as knowledge, strength, confidence, consolation, 



JESUS THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 39 

peace, and joy. All these blessings are included in the 
idea of spiritual food. The gift of these is what is meant 
by the Lord's feeding his flock like a shepherd. They 
constitute a part of that "daily bread" which our souls 
need, and for which we should daily pray. When we 
droop and are faint, when the sorrows and troubles of 
life are too much for us to bear, then He will gather us 
with his arms ; that is, He will give us new strength, 
new trust, new zeal, new desires for goodness. It is 
comforting to think that we can approach closer to the 
Lord in times of trouble than in times of prosperity. 
Sorrow and penitence soften the heart, so that Jesus may 
stamp his image on it. They open the heart, so that 
the love of Jesus may enter more fully into it. When 
we feel weak we want to lean : when we feel hungry we 
yearn to be fed. "Those that are with young" mean 
those who are striving to be wiser and better ; those in 
whom new desires after goodness, new perceptions of 
truth, are beginning to have life. These the Good Shep- 
herd gently and tenderly leads. Just as much as our 
strength will bear, so much the Lord lays upon us. 
When more is to be borne, He will give more strength. 

The Good Shepherd watches over every one of his 
sheep, and over all alike. It is not a regard for his 
flock in a general sort of way, but a regard to the powers 
and needs of each. His providence is over all, because 
it is over each. He loves all, because He loves every 
one. How then are we bound, by every obligation of 
gratitude and affection, to hear the voice of the Good 
Shepherd and to follow Him ! 



4-0 WORDS IN SEASON. 

PRAYER. 

Ever merciful and adorable Lord Jesus, who hast de- 
clared Thyself to be the Good Shepherd ; who dost love 
us with a father's tenderness, and dost pity us with a 
Saviour's compassion ; who art ever striving to lead us to 
green pastures and by still waters ; we bless thine infinite 
goodness for the sweet teachings of thy Word. 

We desire to put ourselves under thy care. Teach us 
to know thy voice and to follow Thee. May we trust in 
Thee as our guardian and our guide. Protect us from 
our spiritual enemies, and lead us in the paths of right- 
eousness for thy name's sake. Incline our hearts that 
we may keep thy law, and no more wander from thy 
ways. We confess that we have often strayed from Thee 
and gone after false guides, following the wicked devices 
and desires of our own hearts. We implore thy pardon 
for all our follies and sins, and beseech Thee to help us 
become more truly thy people and the sheep of thy 
pasture. 

Increase our trust in Thee, O Lord ; and, knowing 
that Thou art ever at hand to succor and guide, to help 
and strengthen us, may we seek thy counsel and walk 
thereby to the profit of our own souls and the glory 
of thy most holy name. Amen. 



VII. 




THE NEW BIRTH. 

" Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and 
of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." — John iii. 5. 

I HE important subject of the nature and necessity 
of the new birth is presented to us in these 
solemn words of the Lord. They were spoken 
to Nicodemus, a Pharisee and ruler of the Jews. He 
came to Jesus by night, as though ashamed to be seen 
asking instruction from Him whom the rulers and the 
Pharisees despised. He fitly came in the dark ; for he was 
truly in mental darkness as to the nature of salvation and 
the means by which it was to be secured. His ignorance 
of these things extorted a rebuke from the Saviour: 
"Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these 
things ?' ' 

The message, not to Nicodemus only, but to all men, is : 
"Ye must be born again." While these words declare a 
necessity, they also imply a promise ; for that which the 
Lord has declared to be necessary, He will enable us to 
attain. Thus understood, the message is a revelation of 
God's gracious purpose toward us, an assurance that we 
may be born again and enter into the kingdom of God. 

Whence arises that necessity for the new birth, which, 
twice, with a double ' ' verily, ' ' our Lord so solemnly asserts ? 
4* 41 



42 WORDS IN SEASON. 

Man, as his Maker designed him, was to be a creature 
consciously receptive of love and wisdom, of goodness 
and truth, from God. He was to love the Lord above 
all things, and his neighbor as himself. He was formed 
to become an image and likeness of his Creator, upright 
and just, wise and good. Sin came into the world ; and 
it has marred this image and defeated this purpose. Sin, 
willfully indulged, has become a habit, a second nature 
unto man. The sins of the fathers are visited upon the 
children ; not because God imputes the sins of the fathers 
to the children, but because children inherit the evil dis- 
positions of their parents. Children are born with an in- 
nate and hereditary propensity to evil. The stream of 
life is polluted in its course from father to son. These 
hereditary propensities burst out and show themselves 
very early in the form of selfishness, greediness, passion, 
vindictiveness, sullenness, obstinacy, and other vices. It 
is the lifelong struggle of every one who seeks to be good, 
to overcome these enemies within, these " foes of his own 
household." It is these evil concupiscences and wicked 
lusts which afford to evil spirits a standing-place, as it 
were, in the souls of men. It is these wicked inclinations 
which they excite, and which when excited lead us to sin. 
Because our state by nature is so full of inquity, it is thus 
described by the Lord : " The whole head is sick, and the 
whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the 
head there is no soundness in it ; but wounds and bruises 
and putrefying sores." Isa. i. 5, 6. 

As this is our state by nature, how needful is it that we 
should be "born again." We have been "born of the 
flesh," born into conscious possession of the "carnal 



THE NEW BIRTH. 43 

mind, which is death:" we need to be "born of the 
Spirit," born into conscious possession of the "spiritual 
mind, which is life and peace." Only in this way can 
the naturally unclean become spiritually clean ; only in 
this way can the unholy and impure become pure and 
holy. 

To be "born of water and of the Spirit," is to be born 
of truth and goodness from- the Lord — that is, into a life 
of faith and charity. Hence St. Paul, speaking of the " new 
creation" (Gal. vi. 15), says: "In Christ Jesus neither 
circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but 
faith which worketh by love." Gal. v. 6. And St. John 
says: "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is 
born of God. And every one that loveth is born of God 
and knoweth God." 1 John v. 1, and iv. 17. For as 
love and wisdom are one in God, so in all who are "born 
of God" there is a union of goodness and truth, of charity 
and faith. 

Except this great change take place, "Except a man 
be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into 
the kingdom of God." By the kingdom of God is here 
meant, not only the future kingdom of God in heaven, 
but the present kingdom of God on earth. It is the reign 
of heavenly affections in man's heart ; the reign of hea- 
venly thoughts in man's mind; the reign of heavenly 
principles in man's word and works. Hence the Lord has 
taught us to pray : " Thy kingdom come. Thy will be 
done in earth as it is in heaven." Matt. vi. 10. The king- 
dom of God on earth is a state of love, wisdom, and obedi- 
ence ; God's sovereignty in the hearts, lives, and minds 
of men. The kingdom of God in heaven is of the same 



44 WORDS IN SEASON. 

nature. Heaven is heaven only because the angels joy in 
their love of God, delight in the wisdom they receive 
from Him, and are made perfectly happy in their per- 
fected obedience. Hence those who, being "born 
again," enter into the kingdom of God on earth, will, 
when their regeneration is complete, enter into the king- 
dom of God in heaven. 

But how is this change to be brought about? How 
may a man be "born again" into a life of faith and 
charity ? 

It is a law of Divine order that man is receptive of 
truth and goodness from the Lord just so far as their op- 
posites are removed. In order, therefore, to receive 
these Divine blessings, man's part is — to store his memory 
with the truths and precepts of the Word, a?id to resist in 
himself all that is contrary to these. In doing this, not 
in his own strength, but in prayerful dependence on the 
Lord, he receives a Divine influx which removes from his 
mind and heart the forms of falsity and evil, and im- 
plants the opposite forms of truth and goodness in their 
stead. Thus it is that he is " born of water and of the 
Spirit" — born of truth in the mind and goodness in the 
heart. It is thus he enters into the kingdom of God 
here, and is made meet to enter into the kingdom of 
heaven heareafter. 

The death unto sin and the new birth unto righteous- 
ness is not completed in a moment. It is a gradual 
process effected by the Lord during man's co-operation. 
Every accession of truth and goodness from the Lord is 
a new birth. As fast as the old man is put off the new 
man is put on. But the work is incomplete so long as any 



THE NEW BIRTH. 45 

falsity in the mind or any evil in the heart remains to be 
resisted and removed. 

It has been said that man's part in the work of re- 
generation is to resist in himself all that is contrary to 
the Word. This, which at first seems only a negative 
injunction, does in fact embrace the whole duty of man. 
For the Word of God forbids all the wickedness we are 
tempted to do, and enjoins all the duties we are tempted 
to leave undone. Inclination to such wickedness, and 
disinclination to such duties, are, therefore, the evils we 
have to resist in ourselves ; and it is evident that he who 
does this, is striving to be "perfect and complete in all 
the will of God." The habit of self-compulsion, when- 
ever we are tempted to omit duty or to commit sin — 
front the motive that every surrender to the powers of evil 
hinders our regeneration and is displeasing to the Lord — 
opens the soul to the influx of good affections ; sins, once 
habitual, cease to have dominion over us; and duties, 
once distasteful, become at length the very joy of our 
lives. 



PRAYER. 

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, whom with- 
out holiness no man can see ! we desire to humble 
ourselves before Thee, conscious of our impurity and 
of our need of thy cleansing grace. We confess, O 
Lord, that of ourselves we are nothing but evil ; the 
whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. We 
have delighted in ways that are not good. For whatever 
good desires we have felt, and for whatever good deeds 



46 WORDS IN SEASON. 

we have done, we owe Thee gratitude and praise ; for 
from Thee alone all holy desires, all good counsels, and 
all just works proceed. Help us to feel the depth of 
our iniquities, and to mourn because of the wickedness 
of our hearts. Awaken us to a sense of our real state that 
we may know our souls' wants, and thus realize thy 
merciful willingness to give unto us according to our 
needs. 

Thou wilt have mercy on all who seek thy mercy; 
Thou wilt restore all those that are penitent. Create in 
us, we beseech Thee, new and contrite hearts, that we, 
lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, 
may obtain of Thee, the God of all mercy, perfect re- 
mission and deliverance. Teach us what the new birth is, 
and help us to desire it above all things. Baptize us with 
thy truth and righteousness, that we may be indeed thy 
people, and that Thou mayest be our God. Baptize us 
with thy love and with thy Spirit of power, that we may 
love Thee above all things and have strength to do thy 
will. Free us from the bondage of sin and satan, that 
we may rejoice in the liberty wherewith Thou dost make 
us free. And, being born again of Thee, may we show 
forth in our lives that Thou art in us and we in Thee, to 
the honor and glory of thy holy name. Amen. 




VIII. 




PRESENT SUFFERING AND FUTURE GLORY. 

" I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy 
to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." 

" For which cause we faint not ; but though our outward man 
perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light 
affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more ex- 
ceeding and eternal weight of glory ; while we look not at the things 
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen : for the things 
which are seen are temporal ; but the things which are not seen are 
eternal." — Rom. viii. 18, and 2 Cor. iv. 16-18. 

KH|F God had no other and higher purpose in re- 
gard to man than belongs to this world, we 
might well complain of having to suffer. The 
privations of poverty, the pains of disease, distress of 
mind, anxiety and sorrow, would all be inexplicable, as 
to any providential design in them, if this life were the 
all of existence, or if there -were no such thing as the 
purification of the soul. Take away from men their 
belief in immortality and in the need of preparation for 
a future life, and there is no consolation left for " those 
who mourn." Only so far as we have a lively faith in 
"the glory which awaits" the people of God, and only 
so far as we can see how sorrow and suffering make the 
soul tender, and prepare it for "the glory which awaits," 
can we take comfort in times of distress. 

47 



48 WORDS IN SEASON. 

We are led by these passages to think of the com- 
pensations provided by our all-wise and ever-merciful 
Father for those who are called upon to suffer. 

Sorrow is a great teacher. How often do we find 
a serene patience, a firm trust in God, a devoted attach- 
ment to the Sacred Word, an earnest looking for the 
things which are to come hereafter, brought about by 
suffering ! Buoyant with health, immersed in the pleas- 
ures or absorbed by the anxieties of this world, our 
spiritual life languishes, and selfish and worldly loves 
obtain dominion over us. To deliver us from this bond- 
age, nothing else would often avail except some sore 
disappointment, some painful cross, the loss of some 
dear friend, the being brought down to a bed of sick- 
ness, and near to death. We rise from the affliction 
sadder, perhaps, but wiser men and women. 

Sorrow is a softener of the soul. Our natural haughti- 
ness needs to be abased. Many a " thorn in the flesh" 
is given to us lest we should be exalted above measure. 
Our sympathies are deepened and widened by suffering. 
We are more ready to help as well as more able to pity 
after we ourselves have suffered, than before. It is be- 
cause our Saviour was " a man of sorrows and acquainted 
with grief," that He draws grieving and sorrowing souls 
to Himself. He knoweth our woes. He was "touched 
with the feeling of our i?ifirmities . ' ' Having been tempted 
in all points like as we are, yet without sin, He is able to 
succor us when we are tempted. 

Sorrow loosens our hold on the world. When a wise 
man was once shown a beautiful estate, and a charming 
house replete with all the luxuries which wealth could 



PRESENT SUFFERING, ETC. 49 

buy, he said: "Having all these things must make the 
idea of dying and leaving them very terrible!" We 
need to be weaned from the world. The discipline of 
suffering is in most cases the only means which infinite 
mercy can employ to teach us the shadowy and fleeting 
nature of all external things. We were created to live 
for ever, but to remain only a little while below ; and it 
is a merciful providence which leads us to set our affec- 
tions on things above. 

Sorrow opens the soul to the inflowing of spiritual 
graces. True peace can only be realized and appre- 
ciated by the heart that has known the struggle of 
spiritual warfare. Joy will be deep or shallow in us, 
according as the inmost recesses of the soul have been 
explored by the probe of suffering. Thus, in the hour 
of trial we gain strength j coming out of tribulation we 
value our deliverance. The grace of God is thus re- 
vealed in us while we are here ; and our souls are thus 
prepared for "the glory which shall be revealed in us" 
hereafter. The course of affliction is a purifying process. 
It is the furnace which refines the silver and the gold of 
our souls, and burns away the dross. Our sufferings are 
ordered by the Lord, and regulated by Him ; and all for 
our present and everlasting good. The spiritual benefits 
which sufferings bring are so great that the sufferings 
which bring them are not to be compared with them. 
"I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are 
not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall 
be revealed in us." 

Discerning these things, "we faint not;" for "though 
our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed 
5 D 



50 WORDS IN SEASON. 

day by day. ' ' As our day is, so our strength shall be. 
The cross shall be made light, because of the strength 
which shall be given. The affliction will not seem heavy, 
because Jesus will help us to bear the load. 

The recompense is an eternal — an abiding one. Death, 
which delivers from the bondage of the flesh, will also 
deliver the good man from all pain. Sorrow will cease 
when the purpose for which it is permitted is accom- 
plished. God will wipe away all tears from the eyes of 
his children, and all grief from their hearts. The state 
of trial and preparation is in this world ; the next life will 
reveal what the trials and processes of this life have done 
for us. The results of our experience here will hereafter 
abide for ever. Well, then, may we have patience and 
hope to the end, M while we look not at the things which 
are seen, but at the things which are not seen : for the 
things which are seen are temporal \ but the things which 
are not seen are eternal." 

Observe that affliction does not work out "a far more 
exceeding and eternal weight of glory" for all. The 
apostle limits this blessed result to those who, while suf- 
fering, look beyond their suffering and above it ; to those 
who, while bearing affliction, " look not at the things 
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen." 
That is, suffering is salutary only to those who see the 
purpose of their affliction, and strive in faith and patience 
to have this purpose accomplished in themselves. It may 
easily be that sorrow may harden the heart, fret the spirit, 
and sour the temper of those who think only of the " tem- 
poral," and look not at the '"'eternal." In order to profit 
from sorrow, we need to have a lively faith in immortal- 



PRESENT SUFFERING, ETC. 5 1 

ity and eternal life. Those who have not yet attained 
this faith in times of trouble and affliction, may indeed 
sorrow as those who have no hope. So that the gospel 
of our blessed Saviour, by which He "hath brought life 
and immortality to light," is thus seen to be God's pro- 
vision of comfort for those who mourn. 



PRAYER. 

All-wise and ever-merciful Lord Jesus Christ, Thou 
wilt not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able to 
bear. Thou wilt give unto us strength according to our 
day. Having Thyself suffered, being tempted, Thou art 
able to succor them that are tempted. Having borne 
our woes and carried our sorrows, Thou art able to help 
those who come to Thee, trusting in thy sympathy and 
aid. 

In our deepest states of trial, O Lord, enable us to see 
thy guiding hand, to feel thy presence, and to receive thy 
help, We ask not to be saved from needful suffering ; we 
do ask to be saved from sin. Help us to set our affections 
on things above ; to bear all things needful to be borne ; and 
in our weakest and most bitter hour to cry, "Not my will, 
O Lord, but thine be done ! ' ' Make us wise indeed unto 
salvation. Shine upon the darkness of our minds, O Thou 
heavenly Light, that in thy light we may see the truth, 
and know that Thou art not far off, but ever ready to 
help and bless. Soften our hearts. Take away the heart 
of stone and give us a heart of flesh. Wean us from the 
world and the love thereof. Remove from us all pride 



53 WORDS IN SEASON. 

and haughtiness of soul. Open Thou our hearts and 
come in and dwell there for ever. Purge away the dross 
and corruption of our nature, that we may be in thy sight 
as silver refined in the furnace, as gold that is seven 
times purified. We would walk in thy steps, O Lord ; 
and as Thou wast made perfect through suffering, oh help 
us to take up our cross and follow Thee, until we come to 
that blessed world where those who have known the fel- 
lowship of thy sufferings are made partakers of thy glory. 
And all praise be given to thine adorable name, our 
Saviour and our God. Amen. 




IX. 




THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH 

" Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I 
will fear no evil : for Thou art with me ; thy rod and thy staff, they 
comfort me." — Psalm xxiii. 4. 

jlHE contemplation of death forces even the 
thoughtless to be serious. Man is the only 
being who can hope for immortality ; and the 
only being who is aware that he must die. Half of those 
who are born into the world, die before they are fifteen 
years of age ; and the largest portion of these die before 
they are seven years old. They are few in number who 
live to be "threescore years and ten." Whether our 
years be a few more or less, we shall all have to pass 
through "the valley of the shadow of death." 

The idea of dying is a solemn one, and to most persons 
very painful. It makes us sad to think of parting with 
all who are dear to us on earth. It makes us feel sadder 
to think of the sorrow they will feel, or of the new 
anxieties which our removal will bring them. Even 
though our life in the world has been a scene of trouble, 
we have oftener smiled than wept ; we have felt more 
happiness than misery. God has been good to us. The 
way in which we cling to life, shows that life on the 
whole has been a time of gladness rather than of woe. 
5* 53 



54 WORDS IN SEASON. 

The idea of what comes after death, makes the thought 
of death awful. Death is called "dark," chiefly because 
of our ignorance concerning the future life. If we be- 
lieved that death would introduce us into a state of life 
more blessed than we ever enjoyed here, we should almost 
desire to die. The terrors of death would be taken away, 
if we could only see that dying was the way of entering 
into a state of eternal joy and peace ; — into a realm 
where God Himself would wipe away all tears from our 
eyes, and take away all sorrow from our hearts. " The 
valley of the shadow of death " is gloomy, because of the 
darkness that hangs over it : if the darkness were dis- 
persed, the valley would cease to be terrible. 

Two things are needed to relieve us from the fear of 
death. We want light to shine in the valley so as to 
banish the darkness about ourselves. We need trust in 
God for others, so as to feel secure in leaving our dear 
ones to his tender mercy. Both these precious blessings 
are offered in the gospel. 

' l Life and immortality are brought to light by the 
gospel." The believer in Jesus Christ is delivered from 
the fear of death. He may know that in the Lord's 
house are many mansions, and that Jesus has gone to 
prepare a place for him ; that where Christ is he may be 
also. He may know that, while to live is Christ, to die 
is gain. He may feel with St. Paul, that he would rather 
be absent from the body and present with the Lord. He 
may know that his treasure is laid up in heaven j and 
that when he dies, the Lord will receive him unto Him- 
self. He may remember that Lazarus was carried by 



VALLET OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 55 

angels into Abraham's bosom. He may remember that 
St. John saw in heaven thousands of the spirits of those 
who once dwelt on earth, and who had been redeemed 
by the Lord Jesus out of every kindred and tongue and 
people and nation. He may know that those who die in 
the Lord are blessed ; for they cease from their labors 
and their works do follow them. He may remember that 
there is a rest which remain eth for the people of God. 
He may feel that the Lord loves him and that he loves 
the Lord ; and that in the other life he will be with those 
whom he truly loves. 

These precious thoughts shine like stars upon the valley 
of the shadow of death ; and instead of fearing evil, the 
Christian may rejoice in hope of the immortality which 
Jesus has revealed. Through the dark cloud which 
hangs over the river of death, come to the believer 
gleams of the glorious gates of the heavenly kingdom, and 
the radiant angels who wait to conduct him across the 
stream. We might almost long to depart, did not the 
Saviour teach us to say, "Not my will, O Lord, but 
thine be done." 

For those who remain Jesus in the gospel teaches us to 
trust. If God's loving care is over the lilies of the field 
and the fowls of the air, how much more will it be over 
the children of men ! He who numbers the hairs of our 
heads, and knows all our wants, will withhold no good 
thing from them that love Him. If we seek first the 
kingdom of God and his righteousness, all other needful 
things will be added unto us. Perhaps our removal from 
the world will be the very means of causing the hearts of 
those whom we love to turn to God for comfort, to love 



56 WORDS IN SEASON. 

Him, and to receive from Him all needful things. Love 
of God brings trust in God. 

These two precious means of comfort and strength the 
gospel gives us when we are in the valley of the shadow 
of death. For ourselves, who are about to depart, "to 
die is gain." For our dear ones whom we are about to 
leave — if God clothes the lilies and feeds the sparrows, 
will He not also take care of them ? He will comfort 
and bless all who put their trust in Him. 

Leaning thus upon the staff of God's promises, holding 
the rod of his power, and trusting in the Saviour's love 
and mercy, the dark valley ceases to be terrible ; we are 
comforted, and find strength to help us in our time of 
need. 



PRAYER. 



O Lord, our merciful Redeemer and Saviour, the 
strength of all who put their trust in Thee ! we adore 
Thee as the God of our life and the refuge of our souls. 
Thou knowest what is best for us, for Thou art all-wise : 
Thou wilt do what is best for us, for Thou art all-loving. 
Thou didst give unto us life, and hast placed us here for 
a little while to prepare us for an eternal habitation in thy 
heavenly kingdom. Glory be to Thee, O Lord, who by 
thy holy gospel hast brought life and immortality to light. 

Whenever in thy wisdom Thou shalt see fit to call us 
hence, oh comfort our hearts with the sweet promises of 
thy Word. Help us to see that death is the gate of life. 
Guide us through the dark valley. Give us patience to 
bear pain. Make us resigned to thy wise and loving will. 



VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. SI 

Lift all fear from o.ur souls. May we by faith see Thee 
beckoning us with thy hand, and hear Thee calling to us, 
" Friend, come up hither !" 

Fill our hearts with peace and trust. Thou hast led us 
and helped us hitherto, and wilt lead us and help us unto 
the end. May we cast all our care upon Thee who carest 
for us ; and when our work on earth is done, do Thou, 
O blessed Lord, receive us into thy heavenly kingdom, 
where shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, 
neither shall there be any more pain. Amen. 





X. 

THE MORTAL BODY AND THE IMMORTAL SOUL. 

" We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dis- 
solved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens." — 2 Corinthians v. i. 

[OR wise and good purposes God has implanted 
in his rational creatures the love of life. The 
most dreadful idea that the human mind can 
conceive of, is that of annihilation, of ceasing to exist. Life 
is in itself a blessing. The fear of death might well be- 
come a horror of death, if we could believe that the death 
of the body puts an end to the existence of the soul. 
From this horror the Lord Jesus altogether delivers us. 
He " hath abolished death, and brought life and immor- 
tality to light, through the gospel." 2 Tim. i. 10. The 
consolations of the gospel on this subject are very 
precious. 

Man in this world is a dual being ; consisting of a spir- 
itual and immortal part — his soul; and of a natural and 
mortal part — his body. The soul is the real man, that 
for a while is tabernacled in the flesh. It is the soul 
which hears, sees, feels, thinks, desires, speaks, and acts. 
The body is no more than a marvelous material organism 
which lives from the soul, in which the soul dwells, and 
by which the soul remains in the natural world, and takes 
part in its concerns. 
58 



BODT AND SOUL. 59 

When man is said to die, it is only the body which 
really dies. The reason is, that the body is no longer 
suited to be a dwelling-place for the soul. The marvel- 
ous and mysterious links which previously united the soul 
to the body are broken. The soul takes its flight from 
the body; and as its life departs, the body dies. The 
body being dead, truly means that the soul has left it. 
Now that its life is gone, the body, subject to the wonder- 
ful processes of natural chemistry, will waste away, de- 
compose, and mingle with the dust. "Ashes to ashes, 
dust to dust," is, therefore, properly said when the body 
is placed in the grave. 

But the real man, the soul, is not destroyed by quitting 
the body. It remains a living, thinking, loving, con- 
scious being, and dwells in the spiritual world. If the 
man has been good, pious, and holy, if he has believed in 
the Lord Jesus Christ and has striven to keep his holy com- 
mandments, he will, like Lazarus, be "carried by angels 
into Abraham's bosom ;" that is, he will go to heaven. He 
will enter into and dwell in the heavenly mansions about 
which Jesus spake when He said : "In my father's house 
are many mansions : if it were not so, I would have told 
you. I go to prepare a place for you." John xiv. 2. He 
will join the Church triumphant, the "innumerable com- 
pany of angels" — "the general assembly and Church of 
the first born which are written in heaven" — "the spirits 
of just men made perfect." Heb. xii. 22, 23. He will 
hear the blessed welcome of the Saviour, and realize the 
truth of the Psalmist's declaration: "In thy presence is 
fullness of joy ; and at thy right hand there are pleasures 
for evermore." Ps. xvi. 11. 



60 WORDS IN SEASON. 

In that state of happiness the man is as truly a man as 
when he dwelt on earth. He is now a spiritual man, pos- 
sessing a spiritual body, dwelling in the spiritual world. 
The soul, when separated from the material body, is in 
the human form. Hence when Moses appeared to Peter, 
James, and John, ministering to the Lord in the mount 
of transfiguration, although his material body — "the 
earthly house of this tabernacle" — was dissolved, having 
been buried "in a valley in the land of Moab, over 
against Bethpeor" (Deut. xxiv. 6), more than fourteen 
hundred years before, yet Moses was still in the human 
form. By death man ceases not to be human. We may 
be sure that he possesses in the other life all that is essen- 
tial to his existence as a man — memory, consciousness, 
intelligence, and affection, in a spiritual body adapted to 
the spiritual world. In the case of those who have been 
truly members of the Lord's Church, servants and disci- 
ples of the Saviour, there can be no question that their 
faculties are purified and exalted far beyond any perfection 
attainable on earth. Their capacity for joy is enlarged ; 
the joys they experience are beyond all comparison higher 
and holier ; and of the increase of their blessedness there 
shall be no end. 

The joys of the redeemed in heaven do not consist 
merely in vocal praises of the Most High. Every act 
they perform is, indeed, an act of worship and adoration ; 
because everything they do is prompted by love to God, 
is directed by wisdom from God, and is done for the 
honor and glory of God. True worship, either in heaven 
or on earth doest not consist in vocal prayer and praise 
alone. We worship the Lord most worthily when we de- 



BODY AND SOUL. 6 1 

light in doing his will. Our life is a life of praise when 
we live to the honor and glory of the Giver of all good 
gifts, who operates within us both to will and to do of his 
good pleasure. Whatever be the nature of the service 
we may there have to perform, there can be no question 
that every use and function will enhance our happiness 
and deepen our gratitude and love to the Lord. Heav- 
enly light will enable us the better to understand the 
ways of our Creator and Saviour ; heavenly love will fill 
our ever-enlarging affections ; heavenly uses will employ 
our ever-increasing powers. The Lord's joy will then be 
in us, and our joy will be full. However actively engaged 
in heavenly ministrations, the service of the Lord will be 
perfect freedom ; our work will be truly rest, because truly 
delightful to our souls. 

Contemplating such happiness, where the wicked cease 
from troubling and the weary are at rest, where those who 
die in the Lord are blessed — for they cease from their 
labors, and their works do follow them — we cannot won- 
der at the apostle's wishing rather to be absent from the 
body and to be present with the Lord. 2 Cor. v. 8. 
Seeing so clearly that when the " earthly house of this 
tabernacle" — this mortal body — should be "dissolved," 
he would have " a building of God, a house not made 
with hands, eternal in the heavens," we need not wonder 
that he should say in another place, "For me to live is 
Christ, and to die is gain;" or that he should have "a 
desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better' ' 
than to live in the flesh. Phil. i. 22, 23. Death for him 
had no terrors. God had been building up within his 
fleshly tabernacle a spiritual body, a house not made with 
e 



62 WORDS IN SEASON. 

hands, which should be eternal in the heavens. He knew 
that when his body died he should inhabit this beautiful 
house, and that mortality would be "swallowed up of 
life." 



PRAYER. 

Ever-blessed Lord Jesus, Thou that livest and wast 
dead, and who art alive for evermore; Thou who didst 
abolish death, and didst bring life and immortality to 
light by thy gospel ; Thou that hast the keys of hell and 
of death ; Thou who didst go from the world in order to 
prepare a place for us on high among the heavenly man- 
sions ; we desire to bless and praise Thee for the Word 
of Life, and for the hope of glory which Thou hast 
given us. 

We thank Thee that Thou dost lift up our hearts above 
the fear of death. We bless Thee for the assurance that 
we are heirs and joint-heirs with Thyself of that kingdom 
which doth not fade away. We would be with Thee and 
see Thee as Thou art. Having this hope within us, we 
would strive to become pure as Thou art pure, holy even 
as Thou art holy. 

We beseech Thee, O Lord, to help us trust Thee 
more fully, to love Thee more deeply, to serve Thee 
more faithfully, while thy providence permits us to re- 
main. Give us a full resignation to thy will. Make us 
feel that whether we live we live unto Thee, and whether 
we die we die unto Thee, so that living or dying we are 
thine. Keep us from being over anxious to remain, and 
also from impatience to depart. Teach us in all things to 



BODY AND SOUL. 63 

submit our wills to thine, feeling that Thou art all-loving 
and all-wise, and knowest best when to call us home to 
Thyself. Help us while we stay, to do thy work in the 
world. Fill us with thy peace, O Lord ; glorify us with 
thine own self; and when Thou shalt say to us, " Friend, 
come up higher," receive us into those habitations of joy, 
where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are 
at rest, where Thou wilt wipe away all tears from our 
eyes, and reign in our hearts King and Lord of all. 
Amen. 





XI. 

FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 

" If Thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall 
stand? But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be 
feared." — Psalm cxxx. 3, 4. 

I S soon as any one is convinced that he is indeed 
a sinner, as soon as the knowledge of his sinful- 
ness troubles him, he desires above all things to 
obtain the sense of forgiveness. If he has offended his 
neighbor, he knows that sincere contrition, humble con- 
fession, and a promise not to offend again, will obtain 
forgiveness. Indeed he estimates the goodness of the 
person whom he has offended, according to his willing- 
ness to forgive. He tests his own growth in goodness by 
his readiness to forgive those who have offended him. 
The notion of an unforgiving, relentless father, or of an 
unpitying, inexorable king, agrees with his idea of a stern 
tyrant. He cannot conceive of a love which is not eager 
to pardon the transgressor as soon as he is truly penitent. 
Hence, such a mind discerns the tender beauty of the 
parable of the prodigal son. The father of the prodigal 
is so truly a father, while the prodigal himself is so faith- 
ful a picture of what all men have been or are ! 

Such an one in such a state of contrition, feels rather 
than reasons out the thought — that if a good man is ever 

64 



FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 65 

ready to forgive the offences of those who truly repent ; 
if a loving father is so eager to find penitence in his 
erring children, in order that he may show mercy unto 
them ; if the Saviour has used this fact as the basis of his 
touching parable, so as thereby to picture forth the loving- 
kindness of the heavenly Father; then God must be 
ready, nay most eager, to find genuine penitence in his 
erring children, so that He may be merciful unto them. 
Finite love in human fathers is thus eager to satisfy itself 
in pardoning the penitent : infinite love in the Father of 
us all, must be infinitely eager to satisfy itself in the 
pardon of the contrite ! We trust in the tenderness of 
the fathers of our flesh ; then may we not trust in the 
infinite love of God ? 

When we have thus attained to a just conception of the 
Divine tenderness, how sweet it is to find in the Word of 
God such a passage as this: " If . Thou, Lord, shouldst 
mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand ? But there is 
forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared." 

This does not mean that God does not observe and 
know our evil states and our wicked deeds. Who can 
hope to hide his ways from the Lord, or to conceal his 
thoughts from Him who seeth all things? — from Him 
unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and 
from whom no secrets are hid? The meaning is, that 
God will not mark with their appropriate punishment 
those sins of which we sincerely repent, and which we 
resolutely abandon. Penitence — which means the real 
forsaking of our sins because they are sins against the 
Lord — is the great condition of forgiveness. "Let the 
wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his 
6 * E 



66 WORDS IN SEASON. 

thoughts : and let him return unto the Lord, and He will 
have mercy upon him ; and to our God, for He will 
abundantly pardon." Isa. lv. 7. We must not suppose 
that man's penitence makes the Lord merciful. The 
Lord is ever merciful and forgiving; but man, while 
impenitent, cannot receive the Divine mercy, and there- 
fore cannot enjoy the comfort of a realized forgiveness. 
The sense of pardon is in fact the comforting sense of 
the Divine presence, felt in the soul which by penitence 
has become receptive of it. God cannot dwell with evil ; 
He cannot impart the comfort of his presence to the soul 
in which Satan reigns. 

The text asserts more than that the merciful Lord will 
have mercy on the penitent. It implies that all need to 
repent, and therefore that all have gone astray; for it 
asks, Who should be able to stand if it were not for the 
pardoning mercy of God? "If Thou, Lord, shouldst 
mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" The need 
to be forgiven is universal, for all men are sinners. The 
conscience of every one can remind him of laws which 
he has violated, of light against which he has rebelled, of 
mercies for which he has been utterly ungrateful, and of 
duties left utterly undone. Even those who have not 
openly transgressed some commandments, can yet dis- 
cern in themselves the desire and disposition to commit 
such sins. They may have been mercifully restrained 
from murder, and yet have cherished hatred and ill-will ; 
from adultery, and yet have fostered impure thoughts ; 
from theft, and yet have indulged in envy, covetousness, 
and greed. Though they have kept the law outwardly in 
the letter, yet in their inmost thoughts and desires they 



FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 6 J 

have continually violated its spirit. The fact must be 
acknowledged, that "there is not a just man on earth 
that doeth good and sinneth not." "If we say that we 
have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in 
us." "All have sinned and come short of the glory 
of God." 

"Who could stand " if the Lord visited upon us the 
recompense of our iniquities ? The good Lord is far 
better to us than we are to ourselves ! This fact of 
universal sinfulness teaches us that salvation is of grace 
and not of merit ; that it is the free gift of God, and not 
earned as the reward of anything that we can do. It 
strikes away all ground for spiritual pride. It teaches 
humility while it magnifies the Divine mercy, in the re- 
ception of which man may justly glory. It points to the 
need of a genuine contrition in which the soul shall un- 
feignedly feel, " God is all, and I am nothing." 

The truth that there is forgiveness with God leads us to 
fear God : "But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou 
mayest be feared." There are two kinds of fear; the 
slavish fear of incurring vengeance, and the filial fear of 
offending the object of our love. It is the latter kind of 
fear that is engendered by the consciousness of the mercy 
of our heavenly Father. Just as a good son fears to 
disobey the will of a loving father, so the child of God 
fears to transgress the loving will of God. It is not a 
fear that springs from the mere selfish hope of gain ; 
but the tenderness of a conscience thoroughly awakened 
to what is evil. The more we realize how good and 
loving, how gracious and merciful, our heavenly Father 
is, the more we shall love Him in return, and the more 



68 WORDS IN SEASON. 

we shall fear to offend Him by transgressing his holy 
laws. 



PRAYER. 



O Lord God of our salvation, who art gracious and 
full of compassion, with whom there is mercy and 
plenteous redemption, we cry unto Thee. Hearken unto 
the voice of our cry, our King and our God, and save us 
for thy mercies' sake. 

We humble ourselves before Thee, and confess that we 
are unworthy of the least of thy mercies. All we like 
sheep have gone astray ; we have turned every one to his 
own way. If Thou, Lord, shouldst be extreme to mark 
what is done amiss, O Lord, who shall stand ? But we 
bless thy holy name that Thou hast revealed Thyself as 
the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and 
abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for 
thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin. 

But while we trust in thy mercy, O Lord, keep us ever 
mindful that sin separates between us and Thee, hinders 
the reception of thy mercy, and robs us of the sense of 
reconciliation with Thee. Grant us, we beseech Thee, 
true repentance and thy Holy Spirit, that we may shun 
all evil as sin against Thee, and amend our lives accord- 
ing to thy Holy Word. Show us thy mercy, O Lord, 
and grant us thy salvation. Purge our conscience from 
dead works, and help us to serve Thee the living God. 
Let thy Spirit bear witness with our spirits that we are thy 
children. Enable us to put our whole trust in Thee; to 



FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 



69 



love Thee with all our heart and mind and ' soul and 
strength j and to serve Thee truly all the days of our life. 
Thus while we live be Thou, O Lord, our life ; that when 
we die, death may be our gain. 

And to Thee, O blessed Lord and Saviour, be praise 
and glory for ever and ever. Amen. 








XII. 

PERFECT PEACE. 

" Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on 
Thee : because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever : 
for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." — Isaiah xxvi. 3, 4. 

glHERE is no blessing to be compared with the 
blessing of peace ; for the reason that it implies 
and includes so many other blessings. A nation 
which enjoys peace — which neither fears war, nor has to 
make continual preparations for it — can experience all 
kinds of prosperity. Trade increases ; manufactures are 
extended ; more persons marry ; a greater number are 
born ; and art and literature nourish. As war is a most 
dreadful calamity, bringing with it a vast train of evils, so 
peace is the greatest of national mercies, including a wide 
circle of blessings. Peace in the household and peace in 
our own hearts are in like manner precious mercies given 
by the Lord. 

It is more especially to peace in our own souls that the 
text refers. This peace proceeds from peace with God — 
when we feel conscious that God loves us, cares for us, 
watches over us for our good, and will withhold from us 
no real blessing which we actually need. The man in 
whom dwells this sublime confidence, is also conscious 
70 



PERFECT PEACE. 71 

of another class of facts relating to himself — that he de- 
sires to shun every evil way, that he delights in every 
good word and work, that he seeks to know, to do, and 
to suffer the will of God. 

Peace is the blessing that follows pardon. While we 
are conscious of loving evil and delighting therein, there 
can be no peace within us. The knowledge we have of 
what we ought to be and do, must trouble us so long as 
we do not what we ought, and are not what God would 
have us to be. There must be a continual conflict be- 
tween the truth we know and do not, and the things we 
know to be sinful and yet do. It is merciful when the 
Spirit of the Lord will not let us alone in such a state of 
evil ; but continually troubles us until we repent and for- 
sake our sins. There is not and cannot be any true peace 
for the wicked man. If he altogether sides with evil, he 
may succeed in grieving the Holy Spirit and in quenching 
it, and his conscience may become seared as with a hot 
iron. Only by altogether siding with the Holy Spirit, 
going over to the Lord's side, can he find true peace, 
and with it real joy. 

To be in peace, is to be in the true order in which our 
loving Creator designed us to be. It is to be in full har- 
mony with the purposes of God. It is to have our hearts 
open to the inflowing of Divine love ; our minds open 
to the inflowing of Divine light ; all our various powers 
and faculties open to the inflowing of life from the 
Lord. When we are thus receptive of every Divine gift 
and virtue and grace, there is nothing to hurt nor to de- 
stroy in all God's holy mountain. All is at rest, because 
the Lord rules and reigns within us. We have peace, be- 



72 WORDS IN SEASON. 

cause the peace of God which passeth all understanding 
is within us ; because we have begun to realize the bless- 
ing of the adorable Saviour : " Peace I leave with you, 
my peace I give unto you : not as the world giveth, give I 
unto you." John xiv. 27. 

Those shall be kept in this perfect peace whose minds 
are stayed on the Lord. Not only shall they enter into 
this peace, but the Lord will "keep" them in it. That 
which at first was only a transient feeling, shall become 
their abiding consciousness. They shall enjoy a continual 
lifting up of their souls above the cares, anxieties, sorrows, 
and troubles of life. In every spiritual conflict they shall 
obtain victory, and the reward of every triumph shall be 
peace / To have our minds "stayed" on the Lord, is to 
make Him our sole dependence — altogether to rely on 
his mercy and grace. 

The reason is given — "because he trusteth in Thee." 
If we could but obtain this perfect trust in the Lord, 
peace would follow as its inevitable consequence. Our 
worldly troubles would not afflict us, because we should 
know that the all-wise and all-loving Father orders all 
things for our good. Our inward changes of spiritual life 
would not afflict us, because we should be confident that 
by them the Lord advances our spiritual growth. To 
trust in ourselves is presumption : to trust in riches is 
folly : to trust in princes is to provoke disappointment : 
the only safe trust is in God. Trust in the Lord is the 
surrender of our hearts and minds and lives to do and 
suffer God's good pleasure. This surrender of ourselves 
opens our souls to the reception of his blessings ; it is, as we 
have seen, to open our souls to the inflowing of his peace. 



PERFECT PEACE. 73 

If so many blessings come with peace, and if peace can 
be received only by trusting in the Lord, what a merciful 
command it is, ' ' Trust ye in the Lord for ever ! ' ' 

Let us never forget that every one of the Lord's 
commandments is intended to produce some blessing. 
They show us the way in which the blessings are to be 
found ; they reveal to us the means by which the bless- 
ings are to be gained. We are commanded to "trust 
in the Lord ' ' only for our good ; because it is by so 
doing alone that we can receive the Lord's peace, full 
contentment of soul, and the rich satisfaction of every 
good desire of our hearts. 

Hence the command to trust is connected with a 
promise of help — "In the Lord Jehovah is everlasting 
strength." If the Lord be on our side, who can prevail 
against us? If all our pleasures and pains, our trials 
and victories, our anxieties and joys are directed by the 
Lord's hand, how deep and abiding may be our peace 
and confidence! To have Him for our "everlasting 
strength, ' ' is indeed to have an unfailing and all-sufficient 
protector, helper, and comforter. We can obtain this 
blessing by trusting in the Lord "for ever." Well 
might the Saviour, after giving his promise of peace, 
encourage his disciples in these words : "Let not your 
heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." 



PRAYER. 

Ever-adorable Lord and Saviour, who art the Prince 
a peace, whose kingdom is the reign of peace in human 



74 WORDS IN SEASON. 

souls, whose true disciples are peace-makers among men ! 
we bless Thee for the precious promises of thy Word. 

Give unto us, we beseech Thee, such believing hearts 
that we may truly trust in Thee. Help us to stay our 
minds on Thee ; to find Thee a strong tower and a sure 
defence ; the shadow of a great rock in a weary land ; 
an ever-present help in time of need ; our joy, our 
comfort, and our abiding portion. While we read thy 
promises may we feel that Thou art just and faithful to 
fulfill them. While we confess how far we have trusted 
in ourselves and in the things of this world, help us to 
repent of our sinful folly and to trust wholly in Thee. 

Give us of thy peace, O Lord, and preserve us therein 
all the days of our lives. Assure us of thy pardon of all 
our transgressions. Console us with confidence in thy 
goodness toward us. Give us a well-grounded sense of 
reconciliation with Thee. Enable us to surrender our- 
selves with all we have and are to Thee. Take us to thy 
care, and enable us to discern thy hand over us in all 
things for our good. Reign Thou in our hearts. Fill us 
with love for Thee, that we may trust and not be afraid. 
Enable us, in all we say and do, to seek peace and pursue 
it. Being justified, accepted, and sanctified through thy 
grace, help us to walk in the ways of peace, to enjoy the 
delights of peace, to receive a foretaste of that peace 
which is to be found in all its blissful fullness in thy 
presence and at thy right hand ; and thus prepare us for 
thy heavenly kingdom, for thy name and mercy's sake. 
Amen. 




XIII. 

GOD ALONE THE SOWS SATISFYING PORTION 

" Whom have I in heaven but Thee ? and there is none upon earth 
that I desire beside Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth : but God 
is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever." — Psalm lxxiii. 
25, 26. 

jjlHIS psalm pictures to us a very common ex- 
perience. The Psalmist had seen the wicked 
prosper in worldly matters, knowing but little 
trouble, increasing in riches, firm in strength, proud in 
heart, and setting their mouth against the heavens ; and 
he wondered at their prosperity. So he is led to examine 
whether mere worldly prosperity can ever satisfy the soul. 
He reflects on the dangers which attend the possession 
of great wealth. He describes the sad state and miser- 
able end of those to whom riches are a snare. He seeks 
to point out what alone is the soul's satisfying portion, 
and leads us to see the great truth, that the soul can find 
perfect peace, perfect joy, and abiding rest in the love of 
God alone. This psalm must have helped many a mind 
when wondering at the worldly prosperity of the wicked, 
and marveling that those who strive to do and to be 
good, are often tried most grievously. 

It is a temptation to which all are more or less subject 
— to seek in worldly pursuits their full happiness; to 
measure God's kindness by external success; to regard 



76 WORDS IN SEASON. 

prosperity as the chief of blessings. It is very difficult, 
even for good men, not to repine at their own lot, and 
not to feel envious when they see the wicked flourish and 
grow strong. Under this trial many can say, " My feet 
were almost gone : my steps had well nigh slipped. For 
I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity 
of the wicked." 

The great question which this psalm presents is : 
What can fully satisfy the soul? 

If man were only as the beasts which perish, if he had 
no higher aspirations and could feel no nobler wants than 
they, the world and its pleasures might well satisfy him. 
To eat, drink, and be merry might well content a being 
whose destiny is to die on the morrow and then cease to 
be. But the merciful Lord has implanted within us 
deeper wants, because He has designed for us a higher 
destiny. He has so constituted us that the highest con- 
ception of our minds is God, because nothing less than 
the love of God can supply to us our highest happiness. 
He has made it possible for us to think of truth, justice, 
self-sacrifice, and goodness ; because only to the extent 
that we realize the possession of these things can we find 
perfect peace. Falling short of our highest conceptions 
of what man may be and should be, we must come short 
of the highest joy of which we are capable. To shrink 
and dwarf our nature down to the low level of mere ex- 
ternal things and the delight which they can afford, is to 
defraud ourselves. It is to give up for time what was 
meant for eternity : it is to narrow down to the earthly 
what was intended for heaven. A king's son, an heir to 
a throne, might choose the squalor, privations, and 



GOD THE SOUL'S PORTION. 77 

riotous debauchery of a vagabond's life ; but how la- 
mentable that choice ! Even more terribly sad is it his 
a son of God, the heir to a kingdom which shall never 
fade away, to abandon his birth-right and to shrivel his 
soul into being " earthly, sensual and devilish." 

Nothing but the love of God shed abroad in our hearts 
can fully satisfy the wants which the Creator has im- 
planted within us. In sharp distress, in aching disap- 
pointments, in temporal adversity, in seasons of sickness, 
in frustrated plans, in broken promises, in ruined hopes, 
and in the hour of death, what can calm the troubled 
spirit or assuage the anguish of our minds ? These are 
states which come to all, when the soul asserts its true 
nobility, and the man looks down on worldly honors, 
gain, and power, as on inferior things. It sees the hol- 
lowness of popular praise ; it discerns the deceitfulness 
of riches ; it feels conscious of having been created for 
better things; it yearns for a peace that these cannot 
give, for a rest which the loss of these cannot take away. 
It realizes that all external things are of the earth, 
earthly, while it was made for something more than 
earth ; while it must shortly depart from the earth and 
leave all these things behind it. Even though their pos- 
session could satisfy the soul temporarily, it can only 
possess them for a little while ; and when they are lost, 
what shall the soul do then ? 

"Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none 
upon earth that I desire beside Thee." In one object 
alone can true and enduring happiness be found, and that 
object is God. When God created man He designed 
that the creature He made should not find satisfying bliss 



7& WORDS IN SEASON. 

in anything short of Himself. God, therefore, has im- 
planted in us faculties and powers which render us 
restless and wretched until we find rest in Him. To 
receive just what He gives ; to use what He lends ; to 
submit to his will in all things ; to delight in realizing his 
purpose concerning us — this it is which alone can lead us 
into the true peace, and keep us in it. 

Sooner or later the process of loosening our hold on 
earthly things will commence. Health will break down, 
the flesh will fail, the power to enjoy earthly things will 
depart, palsy will come upon our worldly hopes, even 
the power to use our earthly possessions will waste away. 
By these means, the providence of our all-loving Lord 
will endeavor to wean us from our earthly-mindedness, 
and to make us hunger and thirst for higher things. 
Wretched is the man who feels in these seasons that all 
he loves and cares for is departing. Happy is he who 
can then say with the Psalmist : " My flesh and my heart 
faileth : but God is the strength of my heart and my por- 
tion for ever." 

There is only one universal purpose concerning man 
which we can see to be at once worthy of God, and ex- 
planatory of all the various vicissitudes of mortal existence 
— the purpose of preserving the fullest liberty of thought 
and will to man, and at the same time to lead man by 
the exercise of his freedom to eternal life. This pur- 
pose, briefly stated, is — to fit man to become an angel in 
heaven. This Divine purpose rules in all things which 
concern man. Only by entering into the line of this 
grand purpose can man find true joy and real blessedness. 
The eternal Love craves to conjoin us with Himself by 



G OD THE SOULS POR TION. 79 

filling our hearts with love. The infinite Wisdom seeks 
to conjoin us with Himself by filling our minds with truth. 
The Divine Spirit strives to conjoin us with Himself by 
reigning in our lives and ruling in all our deeds. When the 
Lord dwells in us as in his temple, reigns in us as in his 
kingdom, works through us as by instruments, then his 
joy is in us and our joy becomes full. For this were we 
made ; for this should we labor ; and it is the expression 
of a desire for this that we find in the text : " Whom have 
I in heaven but Thee ? and there is none upon earth that 
I desire beside Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth : 
but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for 
ever. ' ' 



PRAYER. 



Ever-merciful and most gracious Lord, thy loving 
providence is over all men. Thou art life itself, and 
only so far as we receive Thee can we truly live. Give 
us more abundantly of thy life, that we may fix all our 
love and trust in Thee, and find in Thee the hope and 
joy of our souls. Thou art indeed as the Vine, and we 
are as the branches ; we are wholly dependent upon 
Thee. Without Thee we can do nothing — nothing for 
our salvation from sin, nothing for our advancement in 
holiness. Thou only, O Lord Jesus Christ, canst save us 
from our sins, and sanctify us by thy truth ; for thou only 
hast the words of eternal life, and Thou, by thy mighty 
working, art able to subdue all things to Thyself. 

Give to us that wise and understanding heart that we 
may desire the true riches of thy kingdom. Help us to 



8o WORDS IN SEASON. 

lay up treasures where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, 
and where thieves do not break through nor steal. Keep 
our hearts in thy love, that we may serve Thee with a 
single eye to thy glory. Guard us from all turning aside 
to mammon and covetousness. Preserve us from the sin 
of envy and the wickedness of pride. 

May we set Thee continually before our face, walking 
in thy way, submitting to thy will, and finding our delight 
in being what Thou wouldst have us to be, and in doing 
and suffering all that thy loving mercy deems best for us. 
Be thou our desire on earth, even as Thou wilt be our 
one source of blessedness in heaven. Lift us up to the 
perception of our true interests. Fill our souls with that 
peace which the world cannot give. Thus help us to 
live here as those who are in the world, but who are not 
of the world ; and when it shall please Thee to call us 
hence, receive us unto Thyself, that where Thou art, 
there we may be also. And ever will we ascribe all 
praise and glory to thy holy name. Amen. 



XIV. 




SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 

" They go from strength to strength ; every one of them in Zion 
appeareth before God." — Psalm lxxxiv. 7. 

INLESS we partake of food we must die ; unless 
we partake of food regularly we cannot be strong. 
The purposes for which we eat are, therefore, 
first, that we may support life ; second, that we may keep 
up our bodily strength. The necessity of eating and 
drinking at regular intervals, and in sufficient quantities, 
is even greater during youth than it is in adult life ; for 
this important reason — the youth has not only to support 
life, but he has also to grow in strength. The food which 
he takes has to supply the loss of substance by the wear 
and tear of daily life, and to supply new substance to 
enable him to grow. It is a proof of the Divine good- 
ness that there is such an abundant provision of so many 
kinds of food for our bodily wants. The Lord takes 
care of our bodies with the same gracious Providence 
that watches over all things, feeding the young ravens 
which cry, furnishing food for all the creatures of his 
hand. 

There is a remarkable analogy between the soul and 
the body in regard to the need of partaking of food, the 
uses which food subserves, and the results of not having 

F 81 



82 WORDS IN SEASON. 

a proper supply of it. The soul needs spiritual food. 
It needs to ' ' hunger and thirst after righteousness, ' ' be- 
fore it can "be filled." The food proper to the soul 
consists of sacred truths from the Word of God, and 
holy dispositions and affections which the Lord gives to 
those who seek them. The soul must, as it were, feed 
on and digest these thirgs, in order that it may live a 
true spiritual life. It must learn these truths, meditate 
upon them, and fix them in itself as principles of life by 
acting in accordance with them. It must seek these holy 
dispositions and affections, cherish them when given, 
and incorporate them into its very life by acting them 
out in its daily walk and conversation. Only by so 
doing can the soul grow in grace and in the knowledge 
of God. 

The soul of every one needs not merely to retain its 
spiritual life, but to increase in spiritual strength ; not 
merely to live but to grow. The faculty to discern truth 
can be strengthened ; the capacity to receive the love of 
God and the neighbor can be enlarged ; the ability to be 
good and do good can be continually increased by the 
good gift of God. The possibility of spiritual growth is 
unlimited ; and in heaven it goes on for ever. The angels 
for ever continue to grow wiser, more loving, and more 
mighty for the doing of good. It sets before us a blessed 
hope, and supplies us with a blessed encouragement to 
believe this. The way in which this growth is effected 
in all heavenly intelligence, grace, and virtue, is this : 
the souls of the angels continually hunger and thirst 
after righteousness, and they are continually filled by 
the Lord. 



SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 83 

In like manner, if we are to retain our spiritual life and 
to increase in spiritual strength, we must feed on the rich 
bounties which the Lord supplies. If we eat not we shall 
spiritually die. If we do not hunger we shall never eat. 
As the loss of bodily appetite shows that there is disease 
lurking in our systems, so the loss of spiritual hunger for 
goodness and spiritual thirst for truth, shows that there is 
disease at work in our souls. 

The Lord has appointed various means of grace, in the 
use of which the soul's wants may be satisfied. These 
are — public and private worship, the holy sacrament of 
the Lord's Supper, pious meditation, reading and study- 
ing the sacred Scriptures ; conjoined with the effort at all 
times to shun what is evil because it is a sin against the 
Lord, and to do what He has commanded, because it is 
pleasing in his sight. The soul that uses these means of 
grace continually grows wiser, more loving, and more 
mighty for the treading down of Satan and sin. Its 
desire thus to grow will become more earnest and more 
active, and it will be more and more fully satisfied. 

It is to this state that the Psalmist refers in the text. 
The whole psalm treats of the benefits and the delights 
which attend the public worship of God, one of the 
means of grace which the Lord blesses to the souls of 
those who sincerely use it. ' ' How amiable are thy taber- 
nacles, O Lord of Hosts ! My soul longeth, yea even 
fainteth, for the courts of the Lord : my heart and my 
flesh crieth out for the living God. Blessed are they that 
dwell in thy house : they will be still praising Thee." 

It may be, however, that attendance at public worship 
is not possible to us. In this case we may still rejoice 



84 WORDS IN SEASON. 

that the Lord is to be found wherever He is sought ; that 
He is not confined to temples made with hands; that 
neither at Jerusalem alone nor on Mount Gerizim alone 
may men worship the Lord; but that He may every- 
where be worshiped in spirit and in truth. It is this 
sincere spiritual worship that brings the soul into com- 
munion with the Lord. This worship springs from the 
soul's hungering for goodness and thirsting for truth. 
Wherever such souls are, there the Lord will fulfill his 
promise ; and they shall be filled. Public worship is a 
sacred duty and a precious privilege ; but when sickness 
or infirmity prevents it, private worship is equally blessed. 
Of all who truly and devoutly worship it may be said : 
1 'They go from strength to strength, every one of them 
in Zion appeareth before God. ' ' 

This increase in strength is the blessed consequence of 
our being "filled" by the Lord; and our being thus 
"filled" depends on our having "hungered and thirsted 
after righteousness." We may become stronger in faith 
— able to know more fully and to see more clearly the 
truth as it is in Jesus ; to know of his doctrine whether it 
be of God ; to find more fully that the truth is in us and 
that it makes us free. We may become stronger in love, 
having our hearts more and more purified from selfish 
and worldly lusts, and more and more filled with love 
to God and man. We may grow stronger in trusting in 
the Lord's mercy and grace; stronger in resisting the 
devil, the world, and the flesh ; stronger in ceasing to do 
evil and in learning to do well ; stronger in peace and joy 
and hope. We shall appear before God, and the Lord 
will be more plainly revealed to us; for "they that wait 



SPIRITUAL GROWTH. 85 

upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall 
mount up with wings as eagles ; they shall run and not 
be weary : they shall walk and not faint." Isa. xl. 31. 



PRAYER. 

O Lord Jesus Christ, the source of every blessing 
and the spring of all human and angelic joy ! we praise 
Thee for all thy mercies, but especially for the redemp- 
tion of our souls, for the means of grace, and for the 
hope of glory. Thou hast provided all things abun- 
dantly for our growth in heavenly affections, and for 
our final attainment of life and blessedness everlasting. 
Thou prolongest our days on earth that we may grow 
in grace and goodness and in fitness for thy presence 
in heaven. May we diligently use the means within our 
reach for securing the beatitudes of thy kingdom. May 
we fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold of that 
eternal life whereunto we are called. Forgetting those 
things which are behind, and reaching forward to those 
which are before, may we press toward the mark of the 
prize of our high calling. 

Sanctify us wholly to thy service. May thy truth be in 
us and make us free — free from all errors of belief, free 
from all darkness of mind, free from all impurity and un- 
cleanness of heart, free from all evils of life. Give us to 
hunger and thirst after righteousness that we may be 
filled. Loosen our affections from the things of this 
world and fix them upon things eternal ; and so order 
our conduct and conversation in the exercise of every 



86 WORDS IN SEASON. 

Christian grace and living virtue, that we may go from 
strength to strength, and at length appear before Thee in 
thy heavenly and eternal kingdom. 

Grant our prayer, O blessed Lord Jesus, for thine own 
name and tender mercy's sake. A??ien. 




XV. 



SIN BLOTTED OUT 

" I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and as a 
cloud thy sins : return unto me, for I have redeemed thee." — Isaiah 

xliv. 22. 



HIS passage throws great light on a subject very 
needful to be understood — the forgiveness of 
sins. 

Sin does not extinguish God's mercy, but hides it from 
us, just as clouds may conceal the sun. Yet no clouds 
can quite obscure all the light which the sun is contin- 
ually shedding forth. The very light by which we are 
enabled to see the clouds is from the sun, and is a proof 
that it still shines. So also, as long as men live in this 
world, even sin cannot altogether shut out the light of 
Divine truth, shining into their consciences, and enabling 
them to see both that they are sinners and that their sins 
separate between them and God. The Lord is ever mer- 
ciful, and ever seeking to pour his blessing upon us ; but 
sin obscures our perception of his mercy, and intercepts 
the communication of his grace. Just as the air becomes 
dark and chill when clouds intervene between the earth 
and sun, so the clouds of falsity and evil prevent the light 
of Divine truth from illuminating our minds, and the heat, 
of Divine love from warming and vivifying our hearts. 

87 



88 WORDS IN SEASON. 

Forgiveness is the removal of these clouds between tht 
soul and God. If the light of the natural sun were con- 
tinually obscured, and its heat continually intercepted, 
all things living on the earth would languish and pine. 
Flowers would lose their tints ; fruits would not ripen ; 
harvests would be ruined ; there would be desolation and 
misery in the land. Precisely similar, as to spiritual 
things, is the state of the soul which is continually ob- 
scured by the thick cloud of transgressions and by the 
cloud of sins. Few and dull are its thoughts concerning 
God, holiness, and eternal life; in it "the peaceable 
fruits of righteousness" never come to perfection; it 
never knows the joy and blessedness of "first the blade, 
then the ear, and after that the full corn in the ear" 
(Mark iv. 28) ; it is a scene of spiritual barrenness and 
desolation. Its state is described in the Word as a wil- 
derness and a desert, a sterile waste. Forgiveness re- 
moves the clouds, so that the Sun of Righteousness may 
shine forth with healing in his beams, making the wilder- 
derness and the solitary place glad, and causing the desert 
to rejoice and blossom as the rose. 

Forgiveness is conditioned 011 repentance, which consists 
in godly sorrow for sin, and the earnest desire and effort 
to sin no more. The Lord is ever striving to remove 
from man the states of falsity and evil which hinder the 
reception of his grace ; but while man continues impeni- 
tent the Lord cannot work effectually to this end. It is 
only when man resists in himself all that is displeasing to 
the Lord, and submits willingly to the Divine operation, 
that the power of the Lord is effectual to remove as a 



SIN BLOTTED OUT. 89 

thick cloud his transgressions, and as a cloud his sins, so 
far as to leave him open to the influence of saving grace. 
Hence the Apostle says, "Repent, and be converted, that 
your sins may be blotted out. ' ' 

With repentance must be joined prayer. Prayer for 
pardon does not change the mind of God toward us — for 
that is love itself, unchangeable love; but prayer is 
needed to promote such a change in us as will fit us to 
receive the gift. States of evil inherited from birth, have 
become inrooted in us by actual transgressions. They 
constitute the cloud that is to be blotted out. In praying 
God to pardon us, we ask Him to exercise his mercy, not 
by changing his feelings toward us, but by removing those 
evils which hide his face from us and separate between us 
and Him. 

Forgiveness is not the utter extinction of our sinful dis- 
positions ; for these still remain, notwithstanding our re- 
pentance. The lusts, the evil dispositions which prompted 
us to sin, are by forgiveness so far removed as to cease to 
be obstacles to our receiving light and life from the Lord ; 
but the fight with our evils, the combat with our long- 
cherished and often-indulged inclinations, still lies before 
us. Indeed forgiveness is but the blessed beginning of 
the work of Divine grace in the heart. It opens the soul 
which has been long shut against the pleadings of Divine 
love and mercy, so that the Lord may enter into it, take 
possession of it, and therein fight mightily until every 
enemy is subdued and cast down. The soul has pre- 
viously become a wilderness, because the light and heat 
of the Sun of Righteousness have been prevented from 
reaching it ; and now the curse of its barrenness is to 



90 WORDS IN SEASON. 

be taken away, and it has to be made to "bring forth 
fruit with patience." 

Forgiveness brings to us deliverance from the powers of 
hell. There is a universal law of affinity as operative in 
spiritual as in natural things, by which like is drawn to 
and conjoined with like. Every evil desire, every sinful 
thought and every wicked deed brings the soul into 
association with infernal spirits in whom a like form of 
evil predominates. To cherish evil is to attract to our- 
selves infernal spirits whose chief delight is in that 
particular evil so cherished. The Lord, by forgiving 
a man, by blotting out, as a thick cloud, his trans- 
gressions, and as cloud his sins, casts the devils out. 
The man's moral freedom is restored; and now he can 
sit at the feet of his Saviour "clothed and in his right 
mind." This deliverance is implied in the text, " Return 
unto me, for I have redeemed thee." Before this is ac- 
complished we may indeed desire and strive to return ; 
but not until we are redeemed from the hand of the 
enemy can we actually return to the Lord with full pur- 
pose of heart. 

Forgiveness is the beginning of salvation. It is the 
first completed stage in the pilgrimage of regeneration, 
whence we may prosecute our journey to the Canaan of 
our longing hopes. Freed from infernal bondage, from 
association with evil spirits, we are admitted into com- 
munion with the Lord and into association with angels : 
for we "are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city 
of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an 
innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly 
and Church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, 



SIN BLOTTED OUT. 91 

and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just 
men made perfect." Heb. xii. 22, 23. The blessings of 
Christ's redemption have become ours; the fuller pro- 
cesses of salvation now lie before us. By forgiveness 
we become receptive of Divine influences essential to sal- 
vation ; but salvation depends on our use of the influences 
so received. We are armed for the good fight of faith, 
and Christ is willing and able to make us more than 
conquerors; we are delivered out of the hands of our 
enemies, and now we may serve Him without fear in 
holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of 
our life. 



PRAYER. 



All-merciful and ever-gracious Lord, who art the Sun 
of Righteousness seeking to shine upon our souls, to en- 
lighten our minds and vivify our hearts with light and 
life from Thyself; we desire to approach thy mercy- 
seat with deep penitence and humble trust. We thank 
Thee for the blessed assurance of thy mercy and loving- 
kindness; for thy gracious readiness to raise up those 
that are fallen, to pardon those that are penitent, and 
to reveal Thyself to those who desire to seek Thee 
that they may love and serve Thee. 

We acknowledge our sins ; our transgressions are mani- 
fold. As a cloud, and as a thick cloud, they have come 
between us and Thee. Intercepting the light of thy 
Divine truth and the warmth of thy Divine love, they 
have produced in us darkness of understanding, coldness 
of heart, and barrenness of life. Our only hope is in 



92 WORDS IN SEASON. 

Thee, O Lord. Help us to see our sinfulness, and to feel 
that godly sorrow that worketh repentance unto salvation. 
Blot out, as a thick cloud, our transgressions, and as a 
cloud our sins. Deliver us from our spiritual enemies, 
and incline us to return unto Thee. Redeem us from 
all iniquity, and purify us unto Thyself a peculiar people 
zealous of good works. 

Give us of thine own peace, O Lord, and fill us with 
the joy of those whose transgression is forgiven and 
whose sin is covered. Increase our love for Thee, our 
gratitude toward Thee, our desire to walk before Thee 
blameless, and our zeal to do good and to bring others 
to the saving knowledge of Thee. Feeling that our sins, 
which are many, are forgiven, may we go and sin no 
more, and walk before Thee in holiness and righteous- 
ness all our days. 

AH this we ask, O merciful Saviour, in thine own name 
and for thy loving-kindness' sake. Amen. 



XVI. 




CHRISTIAN ASSURANCE. 

" The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the 
children of God." — Romans viii. 16. 

| HE assurance which every true penitent must 
earnestly desire, is that his sins are forgiven. 
When Jesus was on earth He said to the sick 
of the palsy, " Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be for- 
given thee" (Matt. ix. 2); to the guilty but penitent 
woman, "Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no 
more" (John viii. n); to the Magdalen, who anointed 
his feet with the ointment and wiped them with the hairs 
of her head, "Thy sins are forgiven." Luke vii. 48. 
These penitents could remember and rely on his gracious 
words. Believing in Him as the Saviour who had "power 
on earth to forgive sins," they could feel an unshaken 
and unshakable assurance that they were indeed for- 
given. To say that we can have no sufficient assurance 
of our forgiveness, would be to assert that those sinners 
were better off than we. It would be to say that while it 
was the blessed privilege of such penitents to love much, 
because to them much had been forgiven — we, who like 
them have been forgiven much, are, unlike them, denied 
the assurance which would beget in us like gratitude and 
love. So far is this from being true, that the apostle 



94 WORDS IN SEASON. 

bases the obligation of Christians to forgive one another 
on the fact that they themselves had been forgiven of 
God: "Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, for- 
giving one another, even as God in Christ hath forgiven 
you." Eph. iv. 32. It is evident that this precept was 
addressed to those who knew themselves to be forgiven. 

By forgiveness the Lord blots out as a thick cloud our 
transgressions, and as a cloud our sins, opening our souls 
to the inflowing of light and life from Himself. As then 
by forgiveness we become receptive of the Spirit, so the 
Highest and most direct testimony to the fact of our for- 
giveness, is the witness of the Spirit: "The Spirit itself 
beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children 
of God." Rom. viii. 16. 

The meaning of this is, not that the Spirit of God 
assures us of forgiveness and of our adoption into the 
family of God by immediate revelation of the fact, but 
that by his quickening presence in our souls He awakens in 
us the consciousness of spiritual life. Our consciousness 
of natural life is the assurance to us that we live. We 
need no argument to convince ourselves of our own ex- 
istence. And just as the soul is conscious of natural life, 
so it may and ought to become conscious of spiritual life. 
This opening in man of a new consciousness — a con- 
sciousness of new states, new thoughts, new feelings, new 
desires and inclinations — is the highest and most internal 
evidence of forgiveness ; it proves to us beyond the reach 
of argument or of doubt, that we have indeed "passed 
from death unto life," that we are made new creatures in 
Christ Jesus our Lord. Hence the Divine process of re- 
generation is described as "quickening." "You hath He 



CHRISTIAN ASSURANCE. 95 

quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. . . . 
God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith 
He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quick- 
ened us together with Christ." Eph. ii. i, 4, 5. Those 
who are naturally quickened are conscious of their own 
existence. The difference between the quick and the 
dead is to be found in the consciousness of the quick and 
the unconsciousness of the dead. So also those who have 
been spiritually quickened are, in the degree of their re- 
ception of spiritual life from the Lord, conscious of their 
spiritual existence. This consciousness of spiritual life is 
the witness of the Spirit with our spirit ; it is the supreme 
proof to us that we are forgiven, and adopted into the 
family of God. 

Besides this, the more interior testimony and ground 
of assurance, applicable more especially to the higher 
forms of Christian experience, there is also a subordinate 
and less interior testimony which all Christians may re- 
ceive. It furnishes additional and confirmatory evidence 
to those already conscious of spiritual life. It supplies a 
means of testing the genuineness of that consciousness. 
It affords a lower ground of assurance to those who have 
not yet attained that deep and abiding consciousness 
which leaves no room for doubt. It is to this testimony 
that St. Paul refers when he says, "Examine yourselves, 
whether ye be in the faith ; prove your own selves. ' ' 
2 Cor. xiii. 5. 

When we thus examine ourselves by the rule of God's 
commandments, and find, notwithstanding manifold im- 
perfections, that we have indeed entered upon and are 
advancing in the life of sonship toward God and brother- 



9 6 WORDS IN SEASON. 

hood toward man, then we have proof, according to our 
state, that the Lord is working in us to bring us to the 
full consciousness of spiritual life. The budding of the 
tree is a proof that the tree is living. Its bringing forth 
good fruit is the proof that its life is healthy and good. 
We know that without the Lord we can do nothing. If 
then we can trace growth and progress in ourselves, we 
know that it is of the Lord, and that it is the pledge that 
we are accepted by Him. 

We may thus have direct assurance of forgiveness, in 
the consciousness of spiritual life ; and inferential assur- 
ance from what we learn of ourselves, by examination 
of our hearts and lives. The latter is the lower state, 
because it implies the necessity of an act of reasoning ; 
the former is the higher state, because in the direct testi- 
mony of consciousness there is no reasoning needed or 
performed. Conscious of spiritual life, we know that 
we are the children of God ; we know that we are for- 
given and have passed from death unto life ; we know 
that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dis- 
solved, we have a building of God, a house not made 
with hands, eternal in the heavens. 

Beware, however, of a serious error. The fact that 
we are now the children of God does not give us assur- 
ance that we must necessarily be saved. We may fall 
back unto perdition. It is possible to make spiritual 
shipwreck. We have become the elect of God ; but the 
necessity is upon us to make our calling and election 
sure. The apostle who had been the means of helping 
so many to life, needed to take care lest he himself 
should become a castaway. The gift of the liberty 



CHRISTIAN ASSURANCE. 97 

wherewith Christ hath made us free, does not destroy 
the original liberty of turning to evil if we so will. 
"Those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of 
the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy 
Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the 
powers of the world to come" — even those may fall 
away. The notion that "once a child of God, always 
a child of God," the doctrine of "final perseverance," 
as it is termed, may easily become a pitfall, a dangerous 
delusion, and a snare into which the over-confident may 
fall. The admonition of the apostle is most pertinent 
here : " Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you 
an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living 
God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called 
to-day, lest any of you be hardened through the deceit- 
fulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if 
we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto 
the end." Heb. hi. 12-14. 



PRAYER. 

Infinite and adorable Lord God Almighty, who didst 
condescend to man's low estate, and didst appear on 
earth to be the Redeemer and Saviour of thy creatures ! 
Thou alone art the Source of every good. From Thee 
alone proceed the natural life which we possess and the 
spiritual life which we may enjoy. Thou art the forgiver 
of sin, the blotter-out of iniquity and transgression. 
Thou dost continually operate by thy Holy Spirit to 
speak peace to troubled consciences, to bind up the 
wounded hearts. 

9 G 



9§ WORDS IN SEASON. 

We humbly beseech Thee to give unto us the sweet 
assurance of thy favor, which is better than life. Make 
us willing for thy sake to lose our natural life of selfish- 
ness and sin, that we may find in Thee our spiritual life 
of joy and peace. Grant unto us to know that we are 
indeed forgiven. May love and light flow into our souls 
from Thee, so that thy Spirit may bear witness with our 
spirits that we are thy children. Quicken our souls with 
life from Thyself, that we may know of a surety that we 
have passed from death unto life. Make us conscious of 
new and pure affections, of new and holy desires, of new 
and joy-inspiring thoughts. Increase within us the wish 
to follow Thee and to become like Thee. May our 
obedience to thy law become more and more delightful 
to us, and our victories in temptation become more and 
more complete. 

While we bless Thee for the progress Thou hast already 
enabled us to make, we entreat Thee to keep us humble. 
Help us to watch and pray, lest the enemy get an ad- 
vantage over us. Guard us from vain confidence, and 
deliver us from all trust in ourselves. Thou hast given 
unto us the beginning of our confidence : oh grant unto 
us thy constant grace that we may hold it steadfast unto 
the end. Thus fit us for the blessed time when Thou 
wilt receive us into thy heavenly kingdom as heirs and 
joint-heirs with Thee, to the honor and glory of thy holy 
name. Amen. 



XVII. 

THE PROVIDENTIAL PURPOSE OF AFFLICTION. 

" Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou 
art rebuked of Him ; for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and 
scourgeth every son He receiveth. 

" Furthermore we have fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and 
we gave them reverence : shall we not much rather be in subjection 
unto the Father of spirits, and live ? For they verily for a few days 
chastened us after their own pleasure ; but He for our profit, that we 
might be partakers of his holiness." — Hebrews xii. 5, 6, 9, 10. 

JSHl T is often very hard to realize that the all-loving 
and all-wise providence of God is over each of 
his creatures in every place and at every mo- 
ment of their lives. When any one has been wonderfully 
preserved from a great calamity, helped in some un- 
looked-for way, or raised by unforeseen events to great 
prosperity, we frequently hear it said that such circum- 
stances were providential. Hence we hear of providential 
escapes, providential interpositions, providential occur- 
rences, and the like. It is quite right to ascribe every 
good thing to God. But if we think that Providence is 
not just as operative in our sorrows as in our joys, in our 
disappointments as in our successes, in our adversity as 
in our prosperity, we certainly err. We must not so limit 
God's operation as to say that his providence was over 



IOO WORDS IN SEASON. 

the one man who escaped from a wreck, and not over 
the one hundred who were drowned ; or that it was over 
those that came out of the battle unwounded, and not over 
the thousands that were left on the field. God's prov- 
idence has no exceptions, but is over all ; and it is not 
merely a general providence, but embraces every par- 
ticular of time, circumstance, and state, throughout the 
life of every man, woman and child. 

There are three things we should always remember in 
striving to discern the hand of Divine Providence. 

The first thing to remember is — that the good Father 
has one abiding, unchangeable purpose concerning us, 
which is to fit us for heavenly peace and light and joy 
while we are here, and afterward to receive us to Him- 
self. All the discipline of life has this ulterior purpose. 
That is a mercy and a blessing which best fits us for 
heaven, which is best suited to the state of the soul at 
that particular time at which it is given. God is the 
Eternal ; He ever has eternal ends in view ; all his deal- 
ings with us are to be judged of in relation to these 
eternal ends. 

The second thing to remember is — that the Lord has 
made all men free, and continually preserves their free- 
dom. Hence men in the exercise of this freedom, by 
transgressing the laws of Divine order, may bring much 
sorrow and misery upon themselves. They may also 
bring misery and misfortune upon their children, in dis- 
eased and enfeebled bodies, in neglected minds, in ne- 
cessitous circumstances. To prevent this would be to 
interfere with man's freedom, which the Lord never does. 

The third thing to remember is — that all pain, sorrow, 



THE PURPOSE OF AFFLICTION. IOI 

and misery are not arbitrary inflictions, but results of 
transgressing natural and spiritual laws, on obedience to 
which our well-being and happiness depend. They are 
permitted in order to prevent worse evils. If sin did not 
bring punishment, to what depths of wickedness would 
men sink ? If folly did not entail distress and suffering, 
how would men be ever urged to grow wise? If forget- 
fulness of God did not often cause us to fall, how should 
we learn to live in humble dependence upon Him ? 

These thoughts will help us to understand and trust in 
the good Providence of God. If He permits sorrow and 
affliction to overtake us, it is for wise and good ends ; 
first, to prevent our becoming worse ; second, to dispose 
us to return unto the Lord that we may become better. 

Almost the only means by which the Lord can make 
us shun evil is to make us feel how terrible a thing evil 
is. Thus He wisely leads us to fear evil, and afterward 
to hate it. It is hateful to Him not merely because of its 
contrariety to his own nature, but because it is injurious 
to us. We have to learn how injurious a thing it is 
before we can be induced to hate it. The chastening 
that teaches us to hate evil, that teaches us to feel how 
necessary God is to us, and how foolish and vain it is to 
rely upon ourselves, is both wise and good. It is wise, 
because it is the best and most effectual means of bring- 
ing us to the Lord. It is good, because it is intended to 
make us better and purer than we are. 

We should not have been chastened if we had not 

merited chastisement. We should not have been rebuked, 

if we had not done something worthy of rebuke. The 

chastening and the rebuke should lead us to examine our 

9* 



102 WOXDS IN SEASON. 

hearts and lives, to see what evil affections we have cher- 
ished and what evil actions we have done. Not only 
should we not murmur, but we should humble ourselves 
before the Lord, confess our sins and follies, and pray for 
the Divine forgiveness, and for wisdom and strength not 
to offend again. 

The Apostle goes further. He teaches that chastenings 
and rebukes are proofs of the love of God toward us. 
" For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth 
every son whom He receiveth." Why does a human 
father take so much pains with his children ? Why is he 
sometimes compelled to use the rod? Why does he 
sometimes permit his child to exercise his freedom, even 
though it bring suffering on the child ? There is but one 
answer — because the father loves and cares for his child. 
He desires to see him become an industrious, intelligent, 
and exemplary youth, and afterward a wise and good and 
useful man. So, also, because God loves us, He strives 
with us by his Spirit, bears with our infirmities, permits 
our sins to punish us, suffers our errors and follies to bring 
pain to us ; and all this that He may develop the powers 
which He has given us, and prepare us for the joy He has 
provided. He chastens us " for our profit, that we might 
be partakers of his holiness." 

To chasten, consequently, does not mean merely to 
punish. It also implies the object of such punishment — 
namely, to purify from all evil, and to correct from all 
error. The whole of our life discipline has this object. 
When joys come to us they are the good gifts of God to 
encourage us on our path, and to make us feel that truly 
God is good to those who love and serve Him. But an 



THE PURPOSE OF AFFLICTION. 103 

unchanging state of joy is not possible on earth as it now 
is, because evil and error are here. The soul must have 
its midnight hours as well as the sunlit seasons of joy and 
gladness. Still the mercy of the Lord is shown as much 
in the night as in the day. It is only in the night that we 
can see the stars. It is only in our sorrowful and afflicted 
states that we can learn the real value of the precious 
truths and consolations of God's holy Word. If we were 
never hungry, we should never appreciate the blessing of 
food. Feeling empty-hearted and desolate is the soul's 
hunger. If it leads us to desire and seek for spiritual 
food, the bread of life which cometh down from heaven, 
it is a blessed hunger. They that feel such hunger as this 
shall be filled by the Lord. 

So then, if we are made to feel the insufficiency of this 
world to satisfy us, the instability of all earthly things, the 
pang and misery of evil, and our own utter weakness 
without the help that cometh from above, the lessons 
taught us in the school of suffering are both wise and 
good. They are afflictions doubtless, but still they are 
blessings in disguise. They rebuke us, but they also 
chasten us ; they purge and cleanse and purify our souls. 



PRAYER. 

O Lord our heavenly Father, who dost love us with 
a boundless love, and who dost care for us with a perfect 
wisdom ! we bless Thee for the precious truths and con- 
solations of thy holy Word. In all thy providences 
Thou art full of tenderness and compassion ; Thou dost 



104 WORDS IN SEASON. 

intend our real and everlasting good. Thou dost not 
permit us to be tempted beyond what we are able to 
bear. Thou givest unto us strength according to our 
needs. 

We are not worthy of the least of thy mercies. We are 
too prone to murmur at -thy chastenings, and to faint at thy 
rebukes. Too often do we distrust thy willingness and 
thy power to save ; too often do we forget thy loving pur- 
pose in our afflictions — to conform us to thine own Divine 
image and to fit us for thy heavenly kingdom. Pardon 
our sinful doubts, we beseech Thee; remove our dis- 
quietudes and fears. Subdue every proud and rebellious 
thought within us ; enable us in every visitation to see thy 
hand, and to submit to thy will. 

According to thy good pleasure do Thou unto us. Give 
us strength to bear the cross and to drink of the cup. Let 
patience have its perfect work. Fit us more and more 
for that state in which sorrow can no more come to us, 
where Thou wilt wipe away all tears from our eyes, and 
where shall be only joy and gladness everlasting. And 
to Thee, O blessed Lord and Saviour, will we ascribe all 
glory and honor and might and majesty and dominion for 
ever and ever. Amen. 




XVIII. 




THE SYMPATHY OF CHRIST. 

" We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the 
feeling of our infirmities ; but was in all points tempted like as we 
are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne 
of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time 
of need." — Hebrews iv. 15, 16. 

IjE have all felt the sweet comfort which sympathy 
gives. To tell our troubles to those who have 
never been troubled, is weary work. Only those 
who have sorrowed can fully sympathize with those who 
are sorrowing. When we know that the friend whom we 
consult in our trials has been more deeply tried than our- 
selves, we can approach him with confidence. We can 
be sure he will understand us, feel for us, help us. We 
are neither ashamed to tell our trouble, nor afraid that he 
will despise us or be indifferent to us. When our friend 
tells us what he has gone through in order to make us 
feel free to tell him everything, how it adds to our power 
of unbosoming ourselves before him ! 

Just such a sweet provocative to confidence does the 
Apostle supply us in the text. He is showing us why we 
may be bold in coming to the throne of grace, there to 
obtain mercy and to find grace to help in time of need. 

105 



106 WORDS IN SEASON. 

The chief reason he gives is that our dear Lord and 
Saviour has suffered more than we all. 

Jesus is our great " High Priest." As the high priests 
among the Jews offered sacrifice to God for the sins of the 
people, so Jesus offered Himself as a holy and acceptable 
sacrifice to God for the sins of the world. The whole of 
his life was one continuous sacrifice — a making of Him- 
self holy unto God, until, by his bitter passion and death, 
his human nature was fully consecrated, sanctified, and 
hallowed by perfect union with the Father — the indwell- 
ing Divinity ; so that henceforth, through the fellowship of 
his sufferings and conformity to his death, all men might 
be made holy unto the Lord; as He Himself says, " For 
their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanc- 
tified through the truth." John xvii. 19. And He was 
not only the sacrifice offered, but He was also the High 
Priest offering the sacrifice. All the types of the Old 
Testament meet in the Saviour. Prophets, priests, and 
kings all represent the Lord, the "Word made flesh," in 
some aspect of his character or work. He was the sacri- 
fice for sin, because He was offered unto God : He was 
also the High Priest, because the sacrifice was offered by 
Himself. " For such an high priest became us, who is 
holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and 
made higher than the heavens ; who needeth not daily, as 
those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own 
sins, and then for the people's: for this He did once, 
when He offered up Himself." Heb. vii. 26, 27. 

This great High Priest can "be touched with the feel- 
ing of our infirmities. ' ' He is full of compassion, tender- 
ness, and mercy. He has borne our iniquities and carried 



THE SYMPATHT OF CHRIST. io? 

our sorrows. In his own experience He has proved the 
infirmities of man ; therefore having Himself suffered in 
our nature, He is able to sympathize with us ; and not 
only to sympathize, but also effectually to help ; " For in 
that He Himself hath suffered, being tempted, He is able 
to succor them that are tempted." Heb. ii. 18. It is as 
though the Lord had cried to us, saying : " O all ye that 
sorrow, come to Me, for I too have wept ! O all ye that 
suffer, come to Me, for I too have suffered ! ' ' He might 
thus address the hungry, the burdened, the bowed-down, 
the desolate ; for He has passed through all such trials, 
borne all uncomplainingly ; and when cruel and wicked 
men crucified Him, He prayed, "Father, forgive them, 
they know not what they do ! " 

He "was in all points tempted like as we are." This 
is a very large statement. Of course it was the Lord's 
human nature that was tempted; "for God cannot be 
tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man. ' ' Jas. i. 
13. The human nature " made of a woman, made under 
the law" (Gal. iv. 4), the Son of Mary "made in all 
things like unto his brethren" (Heb. ii. 17), bore all the 
temptations to which man is liable. All the powers of 
darkness, all the enemies of man's soul, were let loose 
against Him. He triumphed over all. Assailed at every 
point to which the tempter has access in ourselves, He 
conquered all our foes and redeemed us from their power. 

For though in all points tempted like as we are, He 
was "yet without sin." This shows the completeness of 
his triumph. But if the temptations which He endured 
were like those to which we are exposed, then, like as He, 
"spoiled principalities and powers, triumphing over them 



108 WORDS IN SEASON. 

in Himself" (Col. ii. 15 J, so He will enable us to resist 
the devil that he may flee from us. "For this purpose 
the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the 
works of the devil." 1 John hi. 8. Like as He overcame 
He will enable us to overcome, and will at length fulfill 
in us the promise, " To him that overcometh will I grant 
to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and 
am set down with my Father in his throne." Rev. hi. 21. 

Here then are the grounds of our confidence. He is 
our great High Priest to whom we can come. He can 
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He was 
in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. He 
will give us strength to resist the tempter, even as He 
did ; to overcome evil, even as He did ; to become chil- 
dren of God and joint-heirs with Himself. He knows 
our wants, our woes, and sorrows ; and his power to help 
and bless is as infinite as his love. 

In view of these things we may well " come boldly to 
the throne of grace;" we may well have confidence and 
hope. It is just because we are so poor and needy that 
Jesus has compassion on us ; it is because we are so 
weary and heavy laden that He bids us come to Him 
for rest. The promise also justifies boldness — ye shall 
" obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." 
He will pardon our sins ; He will give us help that we 
may "go and sin no more." 



PRAYER. 
Ever-blessed and adorable Lord Jesus Christ ! Thou 
art our great High Priest, who hast offered Thyself an 
all-sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. 



THE SYMPATHY OF CHRIST. 1 09 

Having been tempted in all points like as we are, yet 
without sin, Thou canst be touched with the feeling of 
our infirmities. Having Thyself suffered, being tempted, 
Thou art able to succor them that are tempted. We are 
made bold by thine exceeding mercy to approach thy 
throne of grace, knowing that Thou wilt not rebuke us 
for our unworthiness nor cast out any that come to Thee 
for help. 

O Lamb of God that takest away the sin of the world ! 
have mercy upon us. Thou knowest our weakness and 
our wants ; grant us thine all-sufficient grace, that fainting 
not by the way, we may press forward with ever-renewed 
earnestness to the prize of our high calling. If suffering 
be needful for us, let thy patience be in us and let 
patience have its perfect work. In all our sorrows help 
us to look unto Thee who wast a man of sorrows and 
acquainted with grief, and find Thee mighty to succor 
and to save. And teach us ever to remember that this is 
not our rest ; that here we have no continuing city, but 
we seek one to come — even a city which hath founda- 
tions, whose builder and maker is God. Therefore may 
we look, not at the things which are seen, but at the 
things which are not seen ; that when our earthly house 
of this tabernacle is dissolved, we may have prepared for 
us of Thee a house not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens. 

And to Thee the God of all grace be ascribed all 
praise and honor and glory for ever. Amen. 
10 



XIX. 




ALL THINGS WORKING TOGETHER FOR GOOD. 

" We know that all things work together for good to them that 
love God." — Romans viii. 28. 

[I HE difference between a true Christian and an 
unbeliever is so great that even in the most 
ordinary affairs of life it may be clearly seen. 
The unbeliever does not see God in anything. If he is 
successful in worldly affairs, he praises his own clever- 
ness ; if unsuccessful, he blames something that he calls 
"his luck;" if a pleasant surprise comes to him, it is 
"a happy chance;" if an unexpected disappointment, it 
is "a heavy blow," borne impatiently and often cursed. 
Severe sorrows may well wither up his soul ; for there is 
but little to alleviate them. Prolonged misery may well 
sink him to the grave ; for there he may fancy is rest, 
and beyond he has no hope. The true Christian discerns 
the hand of the Lord in all things. He believes that noth- 
ing can happen but what is known to God, and is per- 
mitted or appointed by God for some good end. He is 
confident that even the evils which he sees, or from 
which he suffers, are permitted only in order to prevent 
the existence of still greater evils. There is evil enough 
in the world ; but there might easily be more. The 
reason why there is not more evil than now exists, is 
110 



GROUND OF TRUST. lit 

because of the overruling providence of God, who hath 
"set bounds to the sea that it cannot pass over." He 
perceives that God has in times past made even wicked 
men instruments for promoting his Divine purposes. He 
has taught men by the horrors of war to love peace ; led 
nations to greater freedom by means of the oppression 
of tyrants ; induced men to become wise by experience 
of the sorrows which ignorance has brought upon them ; 
and by the penalties of vice He has whipped men into 
desiring virtue. 

Recognizing the overruling providence of God in all 
things, harmonizing the two great Divine purposes — 
namely, the preservation to all men of the sacred pos- 
session of liberty to choose either the evil or the good, 
and at the same time to lead them in freedom to the love 
and practice of goodness, the Christian learns the beau- 
tiful and consoling lesson of trust in the love and mercy of 
God. For if the providence of God is over all things ; 
if He feeds the ravens when they cry ; if not even a 
sparrow falls to the ground without his knowledge and 
permission ; if He clothes the lily of the field with 
beauty, and gives to the rose its sweetness — then, indeed, 
may we who are " much better than they," trust in Him 
as to our ownselves. 

The ground of true Christian trust is stated by the 
apostle in the text, "We know that all things work 
together for good to them that love God." 

This does not say that those who love God will always 
be kept from doing foolish and even wicked acts. The 
possibility of falling must ever in this world go side by 
side with the possibility of rising. We are ever main- 



112 WORDS IJV SEASON. 

tained in a state of spiritual freedom ; and while here we 
may sin if we so choose, or obey if we so will. 

Nor does the text say that if those who love God do 
foolish and wicked things, they shall not suffer the pen- 
alty attached by an all-wise God to deeds of folly and 
wickedness. It would not be merciful if folly did not 
bring loss and pain, if sin did not bring misery and re- 
morse. By the discipline of suffering the Lord strives to 
lead men to wisdom and goodness. A Christian can no 
more transgress the laws of health with impunity than 
can an unbeliever. Idleness in a Christian will bring 
him to poverty and want just as it would an unbeliever. 
Neglecting properly to educate, to feed, or to clothe his 
children, will be every whit as disastrous to a Christian 
as to an unbeliever. Indeed, it is hard to see how a man 
can be a true Christian and neglect any duty that is 
obvious to all. He may, however, err from ignorance; 
and if he does so err, the text does not promise that he 
shall be exempted from the consequences of the error. 

But the text does promise this : that if a man truly 
loves God and continues to love Him, then, whatever 
may befall him — prosperity or adversity, pleasure or pain, 
sorrow or joy — all shall work together for his good. It 
does not say that the Christian shall have no troubles, or 
that his troubles shall be made a blessing to him ; it does 
not say that he shall not prosper in the world ; it does 
say that prosperity shall promote his usefulness on earth 
and his fitness for the world to come. 

What is that which is truly the " good " of a man ? A 
worldly-minded man might say that wealth, influence, 
power, and pleasure are the best things a man could 



GROUND OF TRUST. 113 

have. But if the possession of these made a man careless, 
indifferent, negligent of the higher interests of his soul, 
they would be the worst things he could have. Too many, 
alas, set time against eternity, and choose time ; balance 
wordly pleasure against eternal happiness, and prefer 
worldly pleasure. Men like themselves may deem them 
wise; but what do the angels think? What does the 
Lord say about such a choice ? " What shall it profit a 
man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own 
soul?" Mark viii. 36. The apostle is speaking of that 
which is the highest "good," the real, the best interest 
of man. This is — peace in the conscience, contentment 
in the heart whether with little or much, perfect trust in 
the love and mercy of God, the precious blessing of a 
soul full of quiet joy springing from a deep and abiding 
love ; these things while we live here, and hereafter end- 
less happiness. To gain these would be for the man to 
gain good. It would be to secure the possession of good 
here, which would fit the soul to receive greater good 
hereafter. To those who truly love God, all things that 
happen to them will thus work together for their good. 
This is the promise. 

Trouble may come to us, but if we love God and go 
on loving Him, trouble will purify our souls. It will 
show us our errors that we may shun them. It will reveal 
to us our littleness and our weakness to make us humble. 
It will discover to us our sins that we may repent of them. 

Prosperity may come to us, but if we continue in the 
love of God, it will help us to be more useful servants of 
Christ. We shall be enabled to possess our riches with- 
out pride ; to gratify our innocent tastes, and yet not fix 
10 * H 



H4 WORDS IN SEASON. 

our affections on things below ; to be charitable without 
ostentation ; to exercise an influence for good, and yet be 
humble before God ; to remember that the earth is the 
Lord's and the fullness thereof, and that we are stewards 
who will have to give an account of our stewardship. 
The spiritual dangers of affliction are manifold ; the spir- 
itual dangers of riches are manifold more. But to him 
who loves God, both affliction and prosperity shall pro- 
mote his real and everlasting good. 



PRAYER. 

Almighty and most gracious Lord ! all thy ways are 
dictated by infinite love and guided by infinite wisdom. 
Thou wilt withhold no good thing from those who truly 
love and serve Thee. Thou wilt order their ways in 
righteousness, and lead them in the paths of peace. 
Thou knowest our downsitting and our uprising. We 
cannot flee from thy presence, nor go beyond thy fatherly 
care. Thou dost feed the ravens when they cry, and 
dost clothe the lilies of the field. Not even a sparrow 
can fall to the ground without thy permission. We bless 
thy name for these sweet assurances of thy providence. 
Help us to discern it more plainly, to see thy hand in all 
things, to know that it is over us for our good. 

Help us, we beseech Thee, to love Thee with our 
whole heart. Give unto us that heavenly wisdom which 
shall enable us to see how loveworthy Thou art. Reveal 
unto us thy goodness and thy grace. Manifest thy love 
unto us, that seeing Thou hast first loved us we may love 



GROUND OF TRUST. 115 

Thee in return. Beget in us a perfect trust, an abiding 
confidence. Enable us to cast all our care upon Thee 
who carest for us. In times of trouble be Thou near 
unto us to help us. Comfort our hearts in times of sor- 
row and distress. Speak peace to the storms of our life. 
Give us strength to bear with patience what Thou seest 
best for us to endure. In times of prosperity and in 
seasons of joy, help us to remember Thee the Giver of 
all good. Guard us from all pride and haughtiness of 
spirit, and keep us humble before Thee. Deeply impress 
upon us that all things work together for good to them 
that love Thee ; and help us to abide in thy love unto our 
life's end. 

All these mercies we ask, blessed and adorable Saviour, 
in thine own name and for thy loving-kindness' sake. 
Amen. 




XX. 




THE INHERITANCE OF THE SAINTS. 

" Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be 
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light : who hath de- 
livered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into 
the kingdom of his dear Son." — Colossians i. 12, 13. 

j]HY has the Lord revealed so little in the Scrip- 
tures concerning the heavenly habitations which 
He has prepared for his people? Doubtless 
this question has occurred to many minds. It is but 
natural that we should desire to know something about 
the angels ; and that we should sometimes speculate about 
them — their appearance, their clothing, their habitations, 
their worship, their employments; whether they speak 
and write as we do, and have the same revealed Word ; 
whether they eat, drink, and sleep ; what is their sense 
of time or duration, of space or extension ; what is the 
character of the scenery of their blessed abodes. When 
we call to mind beloved friends who have departed from 
earth full of hope and joy, and we can confidently be- 
lieve that they are among the saved, we cannot but ask 
ourselves — What is their present state? who are their 
companions? what are they doing? did they meet and 
recognize their friends who had gone before them ? and 
are they with them now ? It is neither weak nor wicked 



THE INHERITANCE OF THE SAINTS, n/ 

to have such thoughts; nor to carefully "search the 
Scriptures" with a view to meditate upon the very few 
statements therein which seem to throw light upon such 
subjects. 

The most cursory examination of Scripture teachings 
about heaven, will convince us that very much more is 
written concerning the moral character of those who 
inhabit the heavens, than about the external appearance 
of their places of abode. Heaven is presented to the 
student of the Bible rather as a state than as a place. 
Hence we read much more of the peace and joy, the 
love and intelligence, the purity and holiness, of the 
saints in bliss, than of their habitations and employ- 
ments. This is so obvious, that we are obliged to recog- 
nize the Divine wisdom which so ordered it. 

The manifest purpose of God is to inspire us with the 
desire to become heavenly-minded, rather than to gratify 
any merely intellectual curiosity concerning heaven ; to 
impress us with the knowledge of what constitutes heaven 
as a state of the soul, rather than to charm and dazzle 
us with the knowledge of the glories which are there 
visible. We learn, consequently, with great clearness, 
what is needful to prepare us for heaven ; while the 
beauties and delights of heaven are but dimly and inci- 
dentally pictured to our minds. Thus a moral turn is 
given to all instruction contained in the sacred Volume 
on this subject; and our meditations thereon become 
truly profitable to our souls. 

There may possibly have been a wise reason for this 
absence of information, arising from the state of those 
to whom the Word was given, rendering them unable 



Ii8 WORDS IN SEASON. 

to understand, appreciate, or receive such information. 
Only those who are heavenly-minded can rightly under- 
stand any description of heaven. Hence the grand ob- 
ject of the Scriptures is to enable us to become heavenly- 
minded. Only an apostle like St. Paul might be caught 
up to the third heaven, and there hear unspeakable words, 
and no doubt gaze on indescribable things. 2 Cor. xii. 
1-4. Only an apostle like St. John could be intromited 
into the spiritual world, and there behold the wonders 
recorded in the Apocalypse. The more practical and 
salutary instruction concerning the moral quality of heav- 
en, was intended for all mankind. Hence heaven is 
presented to us in general, as the abode of loving, in- 
telligent, and active beings, where every good desire 
finds its fullest joy. The truth which we here learn in 
part, we shall there learn in fullness. The love which 
we here feel, will there be amplified and deepened. 
The active powers which here have only a limited field, 
a straitened ability, and a temporary use, shall there 
obtain a wider field, a larger ability, and an endless 
exercise. Universal beauty will there be seen, because 
universal order shall prevail. No sorrow shall be there, 
and no night. There will be perfect harmony between 
the inward states of the saints in bliss and all things that 
surround them. It is true that the scenery of heaven, 
the music of heaven, the songs of heaven, the joys of 
heaven, surpass our power to understand them ; but the 
Scripture references to these, even in the literal sense, 
have their use in appealing to our best feelings, picturing 
to us ideas of blessedness, and presenting the Author 
and Giver of this bliss as indeed worthy of our adora- 



THE INHERITANCE OF THE SAINTS. 1 19 

tion and love. Thus although not much is revealed, we 
may still know enough to make us give "thanks unto 
the Father" who has prepared such happiness for his 
children. 

If we thank Him for this token of his mercy, how 
much more do we owe Him thanks for having "made us 
meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in 
light ! " To have provided heaven for us is much : to 
have prepared us for heaven is more. We become fitted 
to enjoy heaven by learning to delight in heavenly things. 
The process by which this preparation is effected is re- 
generation. It consists in the reception of heavenly love 
and wisdom from the Lord ; in the formation in man of a 
truly heavenly character, so that all the aspirations and 
delights of the soul shall become heavenly. Heaven 
would only be a place of misery to those who felt no joy 
in heavenly delights. Indeed it is easy to conceive that, 
to those who are destitute of truth and goodness and con- 
firmed in falsity and evil, heaven would be even more 
painful and horrible than hell. To the drunkard, the 
licentious, the covetous, the revengeful, the society of the 
temperate, pure, generous, and merciful is ever a source 
of discomfort and even pain. They desire even here to 
flee from such, and to associate with their like. Death, 
which is merely the putting off of the material body, makes 
no change in a man's ruling loves. How needful then it 
is that we should be made "meet to be partakers of the 
inheritance of the saints in light. ' ' 

In order to be prepared for the inheritance in light, we 
must first be delivered from "the power of darkness," 
that is, from bondage to evil spirits, elsewhere called 



120 WORDS IN SEASON. 

"the rulers of the darkness of this world." Eph. vi. 12. 
Infernal spirits excite our hereditary dispositions and ten- 
dencies to sin ; and every sin strengthens the evil disposi- 
tion, and roots it more deeply in the soul. As the dis- 
position grows stronger, it is more easily excited and its 
excitements are more terrible, thus giving to infernal 
spirits a continually increasing power over us. They 
rule us through our vices ; and as we become more vicious 
we become more enslaved. Thus the phrase, "the power 
of darkness," indicates a fearful fact in the experience of 
man. 

It is the Lord who alone can deliver us. He alone can 
break our bondage and redeem us from the hand of our 
enemies. This He does by means of truth, enabling us 
to see our bondage and to desire to be free ; enabling us 
to conceive of a state of liberty and to desire to attain it. 
Moved by this desire, we are led to "resist the devil" — 
to shun evil because it is a sin against the Lord as well as 
destructive to ourselves. The Lord then removes the 
evil affections, and implants the opposite good affections 
in their stead; the powers of darkness recede and the 
angels of the Lord's kingdom approach and minister 
unto us. 

It is thus we are "turned from darkness to light, and 
from the power of Satan unto God ;" or, as the text ex- 
presses it, we are "delivered from the power of darkness 
and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son." 
The kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ is within. It is an 
inward reign of righteousness, love, joy, and peace. It 
is a heavenly kingdom set up in the soul, the life of which 
is love, and the laws of which are the truths of the Word. 



THE INHERITANCE OF THE SAINTS. 121 

They in whom this heavenly kingdom is set up are " made 
meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in 
light." Carrying heaven within them here, they can 
enter into heaven hereafter. The Lord has begun the 
good work in them, and He will complete it in the day 
when that which is perfect shall come, and that whidi is 
in part shall be done away. 



PRAYER. 



O God our heavenly Father, who in thy great love 
to mankind didst give thine only-begotten Son, that who- 
soever believeth in Him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life ; we desire to render unto Thee most humble 
and hearty thanks for all thy mercies, but specially for 
the work of thy grace in our souls, and for the hope of 
glory which Thou hast given us. Help us to fix our 
affections on things above. May the contemplation of 
the blessedness of the saints in light, excite in us an 
earnest longing to partake of their inheritance. Help us 
to desire thy light that we may walk therein ; so shall we 
become the children of light, and inherit a mansion in 
those realms where darkness never comes. So incline 
our hearts to the love of goodness that we may be ever 
willing to come to the light, that whatever is evil in us 
may be reproved. 

We have been in bondage unto sin and Satan, and 
have groaned bitterly, desiring thy redemption. Trans- 
late us out of darkness into light, out of evil into good- 
ness, out of the tyranny of hell into the freedom of thy 
11 



122 WORDS IN SEASON. 

kingdom ; that we, being delivered out of the hands of 
our enemies, may serve Thee without fear in holiness and 
in righteousness all the days of our life. May all our 
troubles wean us from the world, and all our blessings 
bind us more closely to Thee. And when we shall have 
ended our battle and pilgrimage here below, receive us 
unto thy kingdom and rest above, where with all thy re- 
deemed Church we shall serve and magnify Thee for 
ever. Amen. 





XXI. 

THE HIGH AND LOFTY ONE DWELLING WITH THE 
HUMBLE AND CONTRITE. 

" Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose 
name is Holy ; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that 
is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, 
and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." — Isaiah lvii. 15. 

jjlOW marvelously is the revelation of God suited 
to man's nature and wants ! While we could 
not be content to worship a God who was not 
the Most High, unsearchable in his greatness, surpassing 
all our conceptions of his majesty, yet we could never 
venture to worship Him if He were not also infinite in 
mercy. Hence the Bible reveals to us both the majesty 
and the mercy of God. It inspires us with reverence, by 
showing us his greatness ; it inspires us with trust, by 
showing us his goodness ; it emboldens us to come to 
Him, by revealing his tenderness, compassion, and love. 
Such a portraiture of Himself has the infinite Lord given 
to his children in the passage before us. 

He is " the high and lofty One." He is the One 
only God. There is none before Him, and none after 
Him. He is the First and the Last. He is the 
One only Creator, Preserver, Sustainer, Redeemer, and 
Saviour. All things exist and all beings live from Him. 

123 



124 WORDS IN SEASON. 

He is the universal Providence, controlling, directing, 
endowing all things. He is the blessed and only Po 
tentate, King of kings, and Lord of lords. Heaven is 
his throne, and earth is his footstool. 

"He inhabiteth eternity." " Before Abraham was, I 
am," saith the Lord. He was, ere yet " the stars of the 
morning sang together, and the sons of God shouted 
for joy." Before time began, with the beginning of 
those things to which time alone belongs, He was. 
To Him all things are as one eternal now. He seeth 
the end from the beginning. He is the same yesterday, 
to-day and for ever. 

His "name is holy." His name does but describe 
his nature, and that is holiness. Before Him cherubim 
and seraphim continually do bow, saying, "Holy, holy, 
holy, is the Lord of hosts : the whole earth is full of his 
glory." In Him is no variableness, neither shadow of 
turning. He is the infinite perfection of Love, Wisdom, 
and Power. 

He dwells "in the high and holy places." The 
heaven of heavens cannot contain Him. He is the King 
eternal, immortal, invisible, who only hath immortality, 
dwelling in light which no man can approach unto, 
whom no man hath seen, nor can see. Jesus Christ 
ascended ' ' far above all heavens, ' ' into this inaccessible 
glory, because He was the only-begotten Son of God, 
whom God glorified with Himself. 

It is impossible to form loftier conceptions of God 
than the descriptions He has given of Himself in his 
Word. Desiring to behold the majesty of God, we may 
find it there portrayed, until, burdened with the greatness 



THE HIGHEST WITH THE HUMBLE. 125 

of the thought and appalled by the contrast between the 
Deity and ourselves, the soul shrinks in the consciousness 
of its own insignificance, its utter littleness, and wonders 
how such an august Being as God can be mindful of so 
small a thing as man. Awed thus by the contemplation 
of the Divine majesty, we are prepared to welcome the 
revelation of the Divine mercy. This revelation the 
text supplies. 

While God dwells in " the high and holy place," He 
does not confine his presence there. He would other- 
wise be a God afar off, altogether inaccessible to man. 
Hence the merciful condescension of the Lord ; for He 
dwells " with him also that is of a contrite and humble 
spirit. ' ' 

Is it not wonderful that when the infinite Lord wishes 
to make us most like Himself, He bids us be humble ? 
When the Saviour sought to give men an overpowering 
reason why they should come unto Him and find rest for 
their souls, the most striking justification of their trust 
which He could give, was this: "For I am meek and 
lowly in heart." The infinite wisdom declaring his 
humility ; the infinite majesty declaring his meekness ; 
the infinite power declaring his lowliness ; well may we 
look upon Jesus, and see in Him the infinite con- 
descension of the Most High. 

Has the world made a mistake, then ? Is the true 
ideal of greatness only to be found in deep humility? Is 
real majesty the meekest ? Is it a fact that only he who 
humbles himself as a little child, is exalted to the king- 
dom of God? It would indeed seem so; for God 
dwells with the humble and contrite. We spiritually rise 
11 * 



126 WORDS IN SEASON. 

the highest when we feel that we are the least. When we 
feel that we are as nothing and that God is all in all, 
then God is most fully with us. The humble and pen- 
itent who know their littleness and mourn because of 
their sins, admit God into their souls. They become 
great with a real greatness, because they receive of the 
Spirit of Him who is greater than all. 

God dwells with the humble and contrite. When an 
assembly of such are gathered together in the name of 
Jesus, He is in the midst of them. Just so far as they 
are really humble and contrite, so far as He is with them. 
He will be with them in the temple and in the workshop, 
at sea or on the land, in the palace or in the hovel, in joy 
or in sorrow. The test of his presence with his Church, 
is the humility and penitence of its members. The proud 
drive Him away. He cannot dwell with the impenitent. 
" What solemn lessons do these thoughts suggest ! 

What does God do in the humble and contrite ? For 
what end does He dwell with them? "To revive the 
spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the con- 
trite ones." "To revive" is a strong expression, full of 
meaning ; it signifies to make to live anew, to quicken 
with new life, to bring back to life. This is what the 
Lord does in the souls in which He dwells. He causes 
them to die unto their old life of sin and folly: He 
quickens them with the new life of love and truth from 
Himself. Hence regeneration is compared by St. Paul 
to the resurrection of the soul out of spiritual death into 
spiritual life : " You hath He quickened, who were dead 
in trespasses and sins." Eph. ii. i. To revive the spirit 
of the humble, is to fill it with the new life of heavenly 



THE HIGHEST WITH THE HUMBLE. 1 27 

wisdom ; to revive the heart of the contrite, is to fill it with 
the new life of heavenly love and joy. The greatness 
and glory of the angels is their knowledge and love of 
God. The real grandeur and glory of man is also the 
knowledge and love of God, the effect of his illuminating 
and sanctifying presence in the soul. 



PRAYER. 



Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who, while the 
heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee, dost condescend 
to dwell with the contrite and humble spirit ; who, while 
Thou art hidden from the wise and prudent, dost reveal 
Thyself unto babes ; who, while thy glories cannot be de- 
scribed by human language nor be understood by human 
intelligence, dost by the mouths of babes and sucklings 
show forth thy praise ; we desire to approach Thee with 
reverence for thy Divine majesty and with trust in thy 
tenderness, compassion, and love. 

We cannot see Thee as Thou art, in the ineffable 
glory and in the inaccessible light; but we bless thy name 
that Thou hast so come down to us, that we can behold 
Thee in thy only-begotten Son Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Help us to draw nigh unto Thee in thy Divine Humanity, 
trusting in the gracious promise : " Him that cometh to 
me I will in no wise cast out. ' ' 

Make us humble in spirit. Give us to see the low 
state to which we have sunk by reason of sin ; how blind 
and poor and naked we are ; how far we have wandered 
from thy ways. Help us to abase ourselves and to con- 



128 WORDS IN SEASON. 

fess our unworthiness to be called thy children. Cast 
down in us proud imaginations and every high thing, and 
bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of 
Thee. 

Make us contrite in heart. Give us not only to see 
our sins, but to repent of them, to hate them, to forsake 
them utterly. Enable us in our lives to show forth thy 
praise, and by our good works to glorify Thee our Father 
in heaven. 

Thus fit our souls to be thy dwelling-place ; and, being 
filled with thy presence here, may we realize in the re- 
ception of love and light and joy from Thee that we are 
thy children, heirs of thy kingdom and glory. Amen. 




XXII. 



JOY IN CHRIST. 



"Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see 
Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of 
glory : receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your 
souls." — i Peter i. 8, 9. 



HERE are some who seem to think that the 
only real things are those of the outer world ; 
things which they hear, see, touch, taste, or 
smell : and that all things of the inner life are compara- 
tively unreal or imaginary. To such it may be answered : 
So far is this from being true, that, on the contrary, men- 
tal things, such as emotions, feelings, desires, thoughts, 
are in fact the only real things we actually know. When 
we look at an object, it is not the eye that sees, but the 
mind that receives an impression by means of the optic 
nerves. When we touch an object, it is not the hand 
that feels, but the mind that is conscious of a sensation ex- 
cited by the nerves of touch. The body of itself sees noth- 
ing and feels nothing ; it is the mind that sees and feels 
by means of the body. Hence the perceptions and feel- 
ings of the mind are all we are conscious of, and are 
therefore the only real things to us. This may serve to 
show that things spiritual are not only real, but even 
more real to us than the things of time and space. 

I 129 



l^o WORDS IN SEASON. 

There are some, too, so limited in their perceptions, so 
dwarfed in their sympathies, and so immersed in things 
present, that they cannot understand how rational men 
and women can love some one they have never seen, be- 
lieve in things they have never witnessed, joy in what 
took place hundreds of years ago. They may be well 
and properly answered, that those who thus "walk by 
faith and not by sight," give, by so doing, the very best 
proof that they are truly rational men and women. If we 
could love only those whom we have seen, or believe 
only what our own eyes have witnessed, or take pleasure 
only in what has happened during our own lives, we 
should indeed be stunted and miserable creatures. We 
accept by far the greater part of what we believe, on the 
testimony of others. Our love is drawn out toward num- 
bers of good and great men of whom we have only heard 
or read. Our own thoughts cause us joy or sorrow, pleas- 
ure or pain, even though they are about things we have 
never seen. 

Hence the Apostle's statement can be true for all ; and 
it is true for many of us. We have not seen the Lord 
Jesus with our bodily eyes ; and yet we truly and deeply 
love Him. We believe that He really lived on this earth, 
on the testimony of those who saw and knew Him ; and 
we believe the descriptions given by them of his character 
and his work. We believe that the doctrines He is said 
to have taught, and the merciful promises He is said to 
have uttered, were really taught and uttered by Him. 
We have examined those doctrines with the aid of all the 
light we had or could obtain, and believe them to be rue ; 
we have tested those promises in part, and have realized 



yOT IN CHRIST. 131 

the fulfillment of many of them in our own consciences 
and hearts. We have endeavored to form a correct judg- 
ment as to his character, his claim, and his work ; and we 
are convinced that his character is perfect, that his claim 
to be " God manifest in the flesh" is a just claim, and that 
his work is a Divine work, full of tenderness, mercy, com- 
passion, and love. While we contemplate his character 
and work; while we think of the sweet consolations 
which his teachings afford ; while we are thereby enabled 
to see our own sinful state, to deplore, confess, and repent 
of our sins ; while we try Him whether He is true and 
faithful, and whether He will indeed give peace and the 
assurance of pardon and help against all evil, to those 
who come unto Him ; while we remember how in our 
own case the promise has been fulfilled — how can we 
help loving Him ? It must have been a precious privilege 
to have seen and known the Lord in the flesh ; yet even 
had this privilege been ours, it could hardly have helped 
us to know Him better or to love Him more. 

It is quite possible that we are even better off than most 
of those who saw and knew the Lord Jesus Christ on 
earth. We have the advantage of seeing Him, as it 
were, through the eyes of several of his disciples. In 
the gospels and in the epistles we have a more compre- 
hensive view of Him than any one of his personal dis- 
ciples could have had. St. Mark supplements St. Mat- 
thew ; St. Luke adds other incidents and discourses ; St. 
John supplies much that the other three evangelists omit. 
St. Peter's view, St. James' view, St. Paul's view of the 
Divine Man and his gospel, have all come down to us. 
The testimony of any one of these would have been suf- 



132 WORDS IN SEASON. 

ficient to justify faith ; but we are all the richer for having 
the testimony and the descriptions of all. Thus, although 
we have never seen the Lord, we have more reason to 
believe in Him and to love Him than was possible to 
those of his disciples who had seen Him. This is no new 
doctrine ; for all agree that posterity can better judge of 
the greatest men than can their contemporaries. 

We can love Him though unseen. His wondrous love 
for us, which grows more wondrous the more we con- 
template it, can draw forth our love. His matchless 
mercy can move our gratitude. To experience in our- 
selves the riches of his grace, makes us cast ourselves at 
his feet and bless and praise and adore Him. We see 
Him by the eye of faith ; we feel Him to be near us by 
the operation of his Spirit within us. The distance of 
nearly twenty centuries seems to disappear, and Jesus 
becomes indeed " Immanuel, God with us." 

This belief in Jesus and this love for Jesus fill us with 
"joy unspeakable and full of glory." Every element of 
joy enters into this rejoicing. We joy because we who 
were in mental darkness have seen the light ; because we 
have been delivered from the power of evil ; because we 
shall be delivered from the punishment of sin ; because 
this great salvation is offered unto all, and may be re- 
ceived by all. We joy because the highest desires of 
our souls may now be gratified — the desire to know 
God, to love Him and to feel that we are loved and 
cared for by Him ; to receive from the Lord the things 
that are best for us, in the best way, and at the best 
time ; to understand our destiny, the purpose of our 
creation, the providential meaning of sorrow and trial, 



JOT IN CHRIST. 133 

of temptation and affliction. Whatever our desire, if 
it be orderly and good, the Saviour administers to it, en- 
abling us to realize it, and with it to receive the delight 
peculiar to itself. A believer's life may be a sweet and 
joyous life, filled with an ever-present peace and an ever- 
abounding hope. This joy is "unspeakable;" it cannot 
be expressed ; it is a thing to be felt, and not to be de- 
scribed in words. It is " full of glory," the glory of grat- 
itude, the glory of praise and thanksgiving, the glory of 
hope — the hope of a greater glory hereafter to be revealed. 
In the communication to us of this faith, this love, this 
joy, we already receive " the end of our faith, even the 
salvation of our souls. " It is a present salvation which 
is a foretaste of the fuller salvation in heaven. God's 
good gifts are to be received here and now as well as in 
the life to come. He feeds our souls from day to day ; 
He heals our wounds from day to day ; He guides our 
feet from day to day ; He renews our strength from day 
to day. Thus we may go our way rejoicing; growing 
more child-like in our fuller trust, more angel-like in 
wider knowledge, more God-like in our tenderer love. 
And this hourly growth in grace, in knowledge, in peace, 
in hope, in trust, is the ever-increasing salvation of our 
souls. How can we help loving Him who is willing and 
ever striving to bless us with all spiritual blessings here, 
that we may be prepared for the fullness of joy in his 
presence hereafter, and for the pleasures that are at his 
right hand for evermore ? 



PRAYER. 

O Lord Jesus Christ, who in thine own person dost 
12 



134 WORDS IN SEASON. 

bring forth to view the eternal and infinite Jehovah, in 
whom we may see the Father and know Him, who art 
of a truth Immanuel, God with us ; help us to believe 
in Thee. We have not seen Thee with our bodily eyes, 
but Thou dost reveal Thyself to our souls, and we be- 
hold thy glory full of grace and truth. Help us to see 
thy beauty more clearly. Desire of all the nations, 
manifest Thyself unto us, that we may understand thy 
wondrous mercy, and the great love wherewith Thou 
hast loved us. Help us to love Thee for thy great good- 
ness toward us and toward all men. Needing knowledge, 
be Thou our teacher. Wandering sheep, be Thou our 
shepherd. . Hungering and thirsting after righteousness, 
be Thou the feeder of our souls with the bread and 
water of life. Troubled and afflicted, be Thou our com- 
forter and help. There is no want our souls can know 
but Thou hast promised to supply it. So often hast 
Thou blessed us hitherto that we cannot but believe in 
Thee and love Thee. Help us to believe with greater 
confidence, to love with purer devotion. Enable us to 
feel that Thou art near us, and that thy presence is per- 
fect peace. Give us of thy joy, and help us so to act 
that thy joy may abide in us. Deliver us from all the 
enemies of our peace, from all evil desires and thoughts, 
that we may rejoice in thy great salvation. May thy 
light shine upon us and lead us to thy holy hill, to the 
blessedness of thy presence here, and to the fullness of 
thy grace hereafter. And all praise and thanksgiving 
will we evermore render unto Thee, our blessed and 
adorable Saviour and God. A?nen. 



- 




XXIII. 

THE LOVE OF GOD IN THE GIFT OF HIS ONLY- 
BEGOTTEN SON. 

" God so loved the world, that He gave his only-begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting 
life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world ; 
but that the world through Him might be saved." — John iii. 16, 17. 

[OD'S gift of his only-begotten Son is the crown- 
ing proof of his Divine love. After proving his 
love to man in so many ways, by creating him, 
by preserving him, by communicating to him such a 
measure of truth and grace as he was capable of receiv- 
ing, last of all God "gave his only-begotten Son" who 
was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin 
Mary. It was not because God was angry with man, not 
because his wrath needed to be appeased, that this gift 
was bestowed, but because He "so loved the world." 

God created all things, because He is infinite love, and 
therefore desired the existence of beings whom He could 
make happy from Himself. He created man because his 
infinite love desired the existence of intelligent beings 
who could understand and appreciate his love, and of 
free beings who could love Him in return. He made 
man capable of loving, in order that he might love God 
with all his heart and mind and strength. All the Lord's 

135 



136 WORDS IN SEASON. 

providence has been the outworking of his infinite love. 
It has had this one object — to lead man to the knowledge 
and love of God. 

This merciful purpose has dictated all the revelations 
of Himself which God has made. It underlies every 
dispensation which He has given. Adapting his revela- 
tions to the continually declining spiritual state of man, 
the Lord has ever striven to show forth his love. When 
He made man He designed him to become an inhabitant 
of heaven ; and his providence has ever been working 
steadily to this gracious end. Every dispensation and 
new revelation is to be regarded as a further accom- 
modation of Himself to man's condition ; the institution 
of a new means whereby man might be reached, and 
rescued from falsity and sin. Nothing less than this 
could satisfy the ardency of the Divine love ; and noth- 
ing less than this will enable us to understand the whole 
economy of God's providential dealings with mankind. 
The universal light, which " lighteth every man that 
cometh into the world," had the same object as the 
brighter but less diffused rays of Divine light which 
shine from the written Word. They were both alike 
intended to serve as guides to direct men in the way 
of righteousness and peace. 

But man continued to fall lower and lower in spiritual 
degradation. Vain, corrupting, and impious myths ob- 
scured the feeble flickering of remembered traditions of 
a better time and a better way, and dimmed the light 
which lighteth every man; and among heathen nations 
men gave themselves up to uncleanness and to work 
iniquity. 



GOD'S LOVE MANIFESTED. 137 

The Jews, the custodians of the oracles of God, had 
proved false to their mission. They had "transgressed 
the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting 
covenant." Isa. xxiv. 5. They had "made the com- 
mandment of God of none effect by their traditions." 
Notwithstanding the miracles and mercies, the entreaties 
and rebukes, the warnings and judgments by which the 
Divine love had sought to keep them faithful to their 
calling, they had altogether gone astray. A full end 
needed to be made of that dispensation. Its ordinances, 
its sacrifices, its priesthood, its tabernacle, and all its 
worship, pointed to Christ. They were shadows of the 
real and the true, serving a temporary purpose, accom- 
modated to the then present states of mankind ; but in- 
tended, "when the fullness of time was come," to be 
superseded by "a new and better covenant." Yet it 
was Divine love which provided the symbol as well as 
the reality, the type as well as the greater thing which 
was typified. In preparing the way for his coming into 
the world, as well as in his actual coming, the infinite 
love of God was manifest. The work of preparing the 
way by the institution of Judaism lasted nearly fifteen 
hundred years ; and the Judaic dispensation was only one 
part of the all-embracing plan, which was first indicated 
in the prophecy: "The seed of the woman shall bruise 
the serpent's head." Love projected the plan; Love 
prepared the way; and Love realized its merciful pur- 
pose in the birth, sufferings, death, resurrection, and 
ascension of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Hence 
we have the proof of the boundless loving-kindness of 
God in the fact that " God gave his only-begotten Son, 
12* 



13S WORDS IN SEASON. 

that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life." 

The "only-begotten Son" is the humanity which was 
begotten of God, and born of the virgin Mary (Luke i. 
35), "the man Christ Jesus," in whom dwelleth "all the 
fullness of the Godhead bodily." Thus Jesus was the 
invisible God made visible unto men by the human 
nature in which He was incarnate; truly "God manifest 
in the flesh, ' ' the infinite Deity ' ' brought forth to view. ' ' 
Hence when " Philip saith unto Jesus, Lord, show us the 
Father, and it sufficeth us, Jesus saith unto him, Have 
I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not 
known me, Philip ? he that hath seen me hath seen the 
Father." John xiv. 8, 9. To believe in Jesus is to be- 
lieve that He is the one living and true God, who in our 
nature encountered all our spiritual foes and redeemed 
us from their power, and is the Author of eternal salva- 
tion unto all them that obey Him. Whoever thus be- 
lieves in Jesus with a true and living faith — a faith which 
works by love, overcomes the world, and brings forth the 
fruits of righteousness — "shall not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life." 

"Everlasting life" means more than unending exist- 
ence ; for there is that in all men, the wicked as well as 
the good, which will never cease to be. It means the 
eternal life of the true manhood, the real angelhood in 
man. True faith in Jesus Christ opens the soul so that 
the Spirit of God may fill it with holy affections, beautiful 
and exalted thoughts, sublime activities. It prepares man 
for heaven ; for it fits the soul to feel heavenly love, to re- 
ceive heavenly wisdom, to perform heavenly uses ; and in 



GOD'S LOVE MANIFESTED. 139 

thus living the life of heaven, to be filled with joy and 
happiness everlasting. 

" God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the 
world, but that the world through Him might be saved. ' ' 
The world was spiritually dead when Jesus came. He 
came not to add to the calamity of this state of death, 
but to raise men out of it. Condemnation may follow 
upon his coming, but those who suffer it will have con- 
demned themselves. The slave who is offered liberty 
and yet refuses to be free, condemns himself to slavery. 
The leper who is offered health and yet refuses to be 
healed, condemns himself to leprosy. The sinner who 
is offered deliverance from his evils and yet chooses 
darkness rather than light, death rather than life, con- 
demns himself to hell. What more could have been 
done for man than the Lord has done? In Jesus the 
Infinite has stooped to our finiteness, the Eternal has con- 
descended to our limitations, the Most High has Come 
down to our low estate, and God has become a man. 
All this, that He might show forth his love toward us, that 
He might save us from our sins, and exalt us to his king- 
dom and glory. 



PRAYER. 

O Thou Infinite, Eternal and Most High God, who 
hast condescended to our low estate and veiled thy Deity 
in our human nature, that we might see and know and 
love and serve Thee ; we gratefully acknowledge thy 
boundless mercy and grace. We see Thee, who in Thy- 
self art invisible, made manifest in thine only-begotten 



140 WORDS IN SEASON. 

Son Jesus Christ our Lord. We desire to draw nigh unto 
Thee as revealed in all thy fullness as our Redeemer and 
Saviour; to praise Thee for thine unspeakable mercies 
and to implore thy saving grace. 

We praise and magnify Thee for thy great love as 
shown in our creation and preservation, and in thy provi- 
dence over us, but more especially in the revelation of 
Thyself in Christ, in the blessings of a free salvation, and 
in the joys Thou hast prepared for them that love Thee. 
O deliver us from the power of our spiritual enemies, 
from our deep-seated hereditary evils, and from the 
slavery of sin. Quicken us with that spiritual life from 
Thyself which is the beginning and foretaste of everlasting 
life. Give us that mighty and wonder-working faith in 
Thee as God manifest in the flesh which will open our 
souls to the life-giving influence of thy Spirit. Fill us 
with holy affections and desires, with wise and true 
thoughts, and with strength to do thy will. Help us to 
grow in grace and in the knowledge of Thee, that we 
may become more and more the children of light, wait- 
ing and making ready for the call that shall welcome us 
to that inheritance in light, where we shall see Thee as 
Thou art and be blessed by Thee for ever. 

Hear us, O God of our salvation, for thy great name 
and mercies' sake. Amen. 




XXIV. 

THE LESSONS OF GETHSEMANE. 

"Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from me : neverthe- 
less not my will, but thine be done." — Luke xxii. 42. 

i] MONG the many solemn lessons taught us by the 
bitter agony of our blessed Saviour, this is the 
most prominent: What a dreadful thing sin 
must be, seeing that, in order to redeem mankind, the Lord 
of glory had to undergo so much ! The terribleness of a 
disease may be estimated by the terribleness of the 
remedy required to remove it. A man is bitten by a 
snake, and the spot is burned with a red-hot iron. Gan- 
grene sets up its killing work in a limb, and with knife 
and saw the limb is removed. The surgery is frightful, 
but it is less frightful than the disease. Better the sharp 
agony, better even the maimed body, than death ! In 
like manner the death which sin brought into the world 
must be viewed as the most terrible of all things. The 
loving Lord so regarded it ; and in order to destroy the 
power of that death, in order to redeem its victims, in 
order to snatch them as brands from the burning, He 
" bowed the heavens and came down." He assumed 
our nature ; clothed Himself with our infirmities ; ren- 
dered Himself susceptible to our temptations ; and bore 

141 



142 WORDS IN SEASON. 

our human griefs and sorrows. In Him were made to 
meet "the iniquities of us all." "He was wounded for 
our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities : the 
chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with his 
stripes we are healed." Nothing less than this prolonged 
tragedy could remove the dread consequences of man's 
sins. The dreadfulness of the remedy shows the still 
more exceeding dreadfulness of the disease. 

Another and most glorious lesson taught us by the 
agony of the Lord, is the infinite loving-kindness of God. 
Nothing can be conceived of which would show forth 
God's love more marvelously than the work of redemp- 
tion. When we were enemies, alienated from God by 
wicked works, rebels delighting in our rebellion, in 
league with hell and in covenant with death — then it was 
that God came to rescue us. He came, not in answer to 
human prayers, not to remove a bondage under which 
man groaned, and from which man yearned to be deliv- 
ered ; for when He came to his own, his own received 
Him not. Only a very small remnant were "waiting for 
the Consolation of Israel." The mass of mankind were 
ignorant, and not desirous to be taught ; were fallen, and 
had no wish to be raised ; were lost, and felt no craving 
to be sought and saved. The most painful and terrible 
symptom of their spiritual disease was, that they did not 
believe they were diseased. The most frightful proof of 
the depth of their degradation was, that they had ceased 
to regard their state as a degradation. Slaves as they 
were to sin, they yet loved the infernal license which they 
had, as if it were heavenly liberty. The bitterness of evil 
had grown sweet to them; the darkness of error they 



THE LESSONS OF GETHSEMANE. 1 43 

treasured as if it were the light of truth. We might con- 
ceive of an all-just and almighty Being sweeping the whole 
human race from the earth, and creating in their stead 
another human race, sinless and not so frail. Just as the 
Creator brought into existence on the earth myriads of 
creatures of which geology informs us, and when they had 
served the purposes of their being, blotted them out from 
the book of the living, and locked their skeletons in the 
stony sepulchres of the earth — so we might conceive of 
the extinction of the old race of men, and of their being 
superseded by another and better race. Such an extinc- 
tion might have savored of vengeance. God's love pro- 
vided another and better plan. He came to his enemies 
that He might convert them into friends. He came to 
rebels that He might win back their allegiance. He 
came to men "dead in trespasses and sins" that He 
might quicken them with life from Himself. For such 
He underwent the agony of Gethsemane, and "endured 
the cross, despising the shame." Infinite mercy, infinite 
compassion, the wondrous tenderness of infinite love are 
here ! 

Another great lesson to be learned from Gethsemane is, 
that suffering is the road to glory. Of course it was the 
human nature of the Lord which was tempted, which 
prayed and wept, which suffered and died. God cannot 
be tempted ; God cannot suffer and die. Jesus was per- 
fect man as well as very God. Our bond of sympathy 
and communion with Him is his manhood. In respect 
to this He is one of us ; made like unto his brethren ; 
touched with the feeling of our infirmities ; tempted in all 
. points like as we are, yet without sin ; partaker of our 



144 WORDS IN SEASON. 

flesh and blood, that so He might die, and "through 
death destroy him that had the power of death, that is 
the devil." It was this human nature in which "God 
was manifest in the flesh," that needed to be " glorified," 
to be "made perfect." And the process by which Jesus 
attained this glorification, this fullness of union with the 
Divine nature within Him, was one of suffering. "For 
it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom 
are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make 
the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. ' ' 
Heb. ii. 10. 

Hence the appearance of momentary shrinking from 
the cup of bitterness which He had to drink ; of quailing 
from the fierce baptism of blood through which He had 
to pass ; of bending under the awful load which He had 
to bear; of being left lonely and desolate in the last 
agony of the cross, as though the Divinity had forsaken 
the humanity that was just about to expire. These appear- 
ances pertained to the human nature of Christ. They 
are pictures and patterns to us. They reveal how we 
may be expected to shrink; and they teach us how, 
notwithstanding our natural quailing, we must go right 
on, denying ourselves, drinking the cup, enduring the 
baptism, bearing the cross, despising the shame. If the 
human nature of Jesus could realize perfection in no other 
way than by suffering, what other way is open to us? 
If the gate of anguish needed to be passed through by 
Him, in order to reach the throne of his triumph and 
abiding glory, we need to have fellowship in his suffer- 
ings in order to have fellowship in his victory. For we 
are "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be 



THE LESSONS OF GETHSEMANE. 145 

that we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified 
together." Rom. viii. 17. 

The secret of the power which the gospel story exerts 
on man, is that it presents to us the picture of a man — 
"the man Christ Jesus "- — made in all things like unto 
his brethren. In possessing this human nature Jesus 
Christ and all men meet on common ground. He is 
thus the Exemplar unto men as well as the Redeemer of 
the world. Seen in this light, Gethsemane teaches us 
the practical lesson of patience under affliction. We see 
the Divine pattern of a man called to suffer, and learn- 
ing to endure ; tried to the uttermost, and never found 
wanting. His patience in suffering, his denial of his own 
will, his perfect submission to the will of God, furnish 
the sublime model for our imitation. God in Christ 
conquered ; God in Christ strengthened Him ; and so 
also in our sorrows and trials, our sufficiency is of God, 
our help cometh from on high. Our shrinking, yielding, 
quailing hearts may cry: "Father, if Thou be willing, 
remove this cup from me !" but God in us will teach us 
to add the remainder of the prayer — " Nevertheless, not 
my will, but thine be done !" 



PRAYER. 

O most merciful and loving Lord Jesus Christ, in 
whom the infinite and the invisible is made manifest, 
who art perfect man and very God, who didst bear our 
griefs and carry our sorrows, who wast wounded for our 
transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities, on whom 
13 K 



146 WORDS IN SEASON. 

was laid the chastisement of our peace, and by whose 
stripes we are healed ; we draw nigh unto Thee. Thou 
wast grieved more than any man, and wast afflicted more 
than the sons of men. Thou didst die to redeem us 
from the power of death ; and didst rise again to quicken 
us with life from Thyself. Thou hast ascended above 
all heavens that Thou mightest fill all things. Thou art 
the Mediator of the New Covenant, the new way by 
which we have access to the Father. We address Thee, 
O God, in thine own new name, as our Redeemer and 
Saviour, and implore thy saving grace. 

Give unto us to feel the hatefulness of sin. In the 
sorrows that sin has brought upon us, in the dreadful 
bitterness and grief which our sin entailed on Thee when 
Thou didst come to redeem us from the hand of the 
enemy, may we see how dreadful a thing it is. 

Help us to recognize the infinitude of thy mercy and 
loving-kindness. When we were enemies of God, alien- 
ated in our minds by wicked works, Thou didst come to 
reconcile us by thy death. Inspire our hearts with new 
desires to come back into union with Thee. Enable us 
to hate and shun every evil thing and to love Thee with 
all our hearts. Conform us more and more to thine own 
image, so that being conjoined with Thee on earth we 
may be made meet to enter into thy joy when it shall 
please Thee to call us home. 

And all praise and honor and thanksgiving will we 
render unto Thee our God and Saviour. A?nen. 



XXV. 




CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST. 

" I am crucified with Christ : nevertheless I live, yet not I, but 
Christ liveth in me : and the life which I now live in the flesh I live 
by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for 
me." — Galatians ii. 20. 

||F we would participate in the glory of the Saviour, 
we must be willing to take up our cross and fol- 
low Him. The price of the glory is fellowship 
in his sufferings. "It is a faithful saying, For if we be 
dead with Him, we shall also live with Him : if we suffer, 
we shall also reign with Him." 2 Tim. ii. 11, 12. 
Hence the sufferings of the man of sorrows have a practi- 
cal aspect in which they need to be viewed by all whc 
desire to enter into the joy of their Lord. 

There was a necessity for the sufferings and death of 
Christ, not only in regard to us men and our salvation, 
but also in regard to Himself. While the grand purpose 
of the sacrifice of Himself was the redemption of all men 
and the salvation of all who will, it also had a reference 
peculiar to Himself : ' ' Ought not Christ to have suffered 
these things, and to enter into his glory?" The suffer- 
ings and death of Christ were needful, therefore, as pre- 
paratory to the glory that was to follow. They were a 
part of the necessary plan — necessary in this respect as in 

147 



148 WORDS IN SEASON. 

all others — to qualify Him for the glory which afterward 
became his. 

It must be borne in mind that God took on Him man's 
nature, not in the glorified condition of the risen and 
ascended humanity, but in a condition in which, though 
" without sin," it needed to be made meet to become the 
abiding tabernacle of Deity, and the everlasting me- 
dium of Divine influences to man. " For verily He took 
not on Him the nature of angels" — human nature in its 
perfected and heavenly state — " but He took on Him the 
seed of Abraham" — human nature like unto his brethren, 
accessible to their temptations, and subject to weakness, 
sorrow, suffering, and death. "Forasmuch then as the 
children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Him- 
self likewise took part of the same ; that through death 
He might destroy him that had the power of death, that 
is, the devil." Heb. ii. 14. "For we have not an High 
Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our in- 
firmities ; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet 
without sin." Heb. iv. 15. This assumption of a human 
nature inheriting our infirmities, bearing our griefs, carry- 
ing our sorrows, experiencing our temptations, establishes 
the closest relationship between Jesus Christ and every 
man. He has shown us of what human nature is cap- 
able, when completely open to the inflowing of the 
Divine Spirit. He was very man as well as very God, 
and could thus be the connecting medium between God 
and man. 

It is true that the union of the Godhead with the man- 
hood in the person of Christ was initiated by the incarna- 
tion, when God took upon Him man's nature in the 



CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST. 1 49 

womb of the blessed virgin; so that, from the first, 
Christ was very God as well as very man. But it is also 
true that the fullness of this union was progressively 
attained, until by obedience unto death the human nature 
was glorified with all the glory of the Father. Thus we 
read that "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in 
favor with God and man," that "He learned obedience 
by the things that He suffered," and that He was made 
"perfect through sufferings." This process of glorifica- 
tion or making perfect, can only mean the increasing full- 
ness of the union of the manhood with the Godhead in 
the person of Christ. The Godhead was all-glorious, all- 
perfect; but the manhood needed to be glorified or made 
perfect by the increasingly fuller descent into it of the 
Godhead, with which, consequently, the manhood be- 
came increasingly one. Thus the union between the 
Godhead and the manhood, initiated by the incarnation, 
advanced continually to perfection during the Saviour's 
life on earth. His death was the culmination of his suf- 
ferings, the consummation of his obedience : He was 
"obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." 
Being thereby prepared and qualified for the reception of 
the infinite fullness of the Godhead, the human nature of 
Christ became the eternal form of God, in whom now 
' ' dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. ' ' 

In this view of the Saviour's sufferings and death He is 
a pattern unto us. As He was made "perfect through 
sufferings," so we need to be " crucified with Him," to 
"know the fellowship of his sufferings, and to be made 
conformable to his death," in order to prepare us for 
"the glory which shall be revealed in us." No cross, 

13* 



150 WORDS IN SEASON. 

no crown ; no conflict, no triumph ; no suffering, no 
glory; such is the declaration of the Scriptures. "The 
Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are 
the children of God : and if children, then heirs ; heirs 
of God, and joint-heirs with Christ ; if so be that we suf- 
fer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. ' ' 
Rom. viii. 16, 17. 

Christ, however, is not merely our pattern in this work, 
the example we have to follow. If this were all, his ex- 
perience would be of small benefit to us. Dead in tres- 
passes and sins, altogether without strength in ourselves, 
Christ must be a power in us as well as an example to us. 
Only in this way can we receive the full blessing from the 
spectacle of his perfect life. If the glorious gospel of 
the Son of God be not the power of God unto salvation to 
every one that believeth, the beautiful life of Christ is no 
more than a wonderful history, revealing by contrast the 
imperfectness and deficiencies of our own lives ; disheart- 
ening us, indeed, by the visions of an unattainable holi- 
ness ; almost driving us to despair by the spectacle of an 
obedience altogether impossible to us. But Christ is a 
power in us; as the Apostle says, "Yet not I, but Christ 
liveth in me." As the Godhead dwelling within his 
manhood made his manhood all-victorious and glori- 
fied it, so his Spirit dwelling in us may in like manner 
render us victorious, and afterward glorify us together 
with Him. 

"The faith of the Son of God" is a living faith, a life 
of " faith which worketh by love " — love to Him who 
first loved us, and so loved us as to give Himself for us. 
This living faith continually prompts us "no longer to 



CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST. 15 1 

live unto ourselves, but unto Him who died for us and 
rose again." We cannot serve the Lord with a divided 
heart ; the surrender of the soul to the Saviour must be 
complete. As He Himself says, " No man can serve 
two masters : for either he will hate the one, and love the 
other ; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the 
other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Matt. vi. 
24. Those who try to save their old life of selfishness 
and sin, must forfeit the eternal life offered by God in 
Christ. Not till we have learned to hate our old life of 
carnality, not till we are altogether willing to lose it for 
the Saviour's sake, can we possess the more glorious life 
of joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. We must leave our 
all, all that was and is our own, in order that we may 
follow the Lord. The renunciation of evil must become 
total. All the old things must pass away, in order that 
all things may become new. We must be " crucified 
with Christ ;" we must take up our cross and follow 
Him, or we cannot be his disciples. 

How hopeless were the duty, if it were not for the 
promise that Christ shall live in us ! To become the 
sons of God might well seem impossible if our Divine 
Saviour had not covenanted to give unto all who believe 
in Him "power to become the sons of God." Were 
Jesus not man, He could not draw out human sympathy, 
and encourage human imitation. Were Jesus not God, 
human sympathy would be unavailing, and human im- 
itation would be impossible. Being ma?i, He is our 
pattern ; being God, He is our present helper. Being 
man, He lived for us ; being God, He can live in us. 
Being both God and man, He is all-sufficient for us, and 



152 WORDS IN SEASON. 

"the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey 
Him." 



PRAYER. 

Almighty and most merciful Lord God, the Creator 
and Redeemer of mankind, who didst take upon Thyself 
our nature and wast seen and known among men as Jesus 
Christ ; we would magnify and praise thy name. 

Thou didst bear our griefs, and carry our sorrows ; 
and for our sakes wast content to be betrayed and given 
up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death 
upon the cross. Thus by obedience unto death didst 
Thou prepare the human nature which Thou hadst as- 
sumed, to enter into thine own ineffable glory, to ascend 
far above all heavens, that Thou mightest fill all things. 
Thy life on earth was a perfect and sinless life, though 
Thou didst suffer Thyself to be tempted in all points like 
as we are. 

Dispose us, O Lord, to take up our cross and follow 
Thee. We would be crucified with Thee, drink of thy 
cup, and be baptized with thy baptism. Help us to 
have fellowship with thy sufferings and to be made con- 
formable to thy death, that so we may be prepared for 
the glory which shall afterward be revealed in us. May 
thy Spirit bear witness with our spirits that we are the 
children of God, heirs and joint-heirs with Thyself, 
so that, suffering with Thee, we may be also glorified 
together. 

Thou art our example, O Lord, and we would walk in 
thy steps. Be in us the power of eternal life. Incline 



CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST. 153 

our hearts to hate our old life of selfishness and sin. 
Make us new creatures, by the removal of all the old 
things wherein we were sold unto sin and in bondage 
under evil. Enable us to serve Thee with an undivided 
heart. 

And while we receive thine ever-abounding grace, 
our continual praise shall be ascribed unto Thee the only 
wise God our Saviour. Amen. 




XXVI. 




THE GREAT RECONCILIATION. 

"God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not im- 
puting their trespasses unto them." — 2 Corinthians v. 19. 

(IN reading the apostolic word, whatever may be 
the special difficulties of particular passages — 
difficulties which have been fruitful sources of 
division in the Christian Church — we see everywhere one 
prominent truth either expressed or implied — viz., that 
by the death of Christ all ma?ikind were brought into a 
new relation to God. 

This new relation to God, called by the apostle "re- 
conciliation," is an accomplished fact, predicated of man- 
kind as a race. Thus St. Paul says ' ' We, ' ' that is, our 
previously alienated race, "were reconciled to God by 
the death of his Son;" and in the text, "God was in 
Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself." In both 
these passages there is a reference, not to believers only, 
but to all mankind. 

Now it is certain that this "reconciliation," whatever 
may be its precise nature, implies no change in the mind 
of the immutable God. He who is "the same yester- 
day, to-day, and for ever," " in whom is no variableness, 
neither shadow of turning," may and does operate vari- 

154 



THE GREAT RECONCILIATION. 155 

ously according to the changing condition of mankind ; 
but He is Himself Love, unchangeable Love, to all his 
creatures, and needed not to be reconciled to man. The 
change implied in the term "reconciliation" must there- 
fore be a change in the spiritual condition of mankind. 
This conclusion is confirmed by the fact that wherever 
"reconciliation" is referred to, either in its general or 
in its individual aspect, it is spoken of as a reconciliation 
of man to God, and not of God to man. Thus in the 
passages before quoted, " We were reconciled to God by 
the death of his Son;" " God was in Christ, reconciling 
the world unto Himself. ' ' And others to the same effect : 
"All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Him- 
self by Jesus Christ;" "We pray you in Christ's stead, 
be ye reconciled to God. ' ' 

What then is the nature of the reconciliation which 
was effected by the death of Christ ? 

When it is said that "God was in Christ, reconciling 
the world unto Himself, ' ' the meaning is not that all men 
were by the death of Christ inwardly and consciously 
reconciled to the God from whom they had been alien- 
ated and estranged ; but that the world — mankind as a 
whole — were potentially reconciled to God. The lost 
and alienated race of man was by the death of Christ 
redeemed from the power of hell, and so brought into 
a new capacity of being saved ; gifted with a new ability 
to realize actual and individual reconciliation to God. 
Mankind were previously as the prey in the hand of the 
spoiler; as a captive in the power of the captor; as a 
bondman under the power of evil. They had so come 
under the power of sin as to have entailed on themselves 



156 WORDS IN SEASON. 

all sin's disabilities. To avert from them the destruction 
which was imminent, and to make their salvation possible, 
the first thing needed was — deliverance from slavery \ the 
taking captive the spiritual powers that held them in 
captivity, and their restoration to such a condition of 
spiritual liberty, that whosoever would, might come and 
drink of the water of life freely. The strong man armed 
needed first to be driven out of the house of man's soul, 
before the man could open the door and admit the Sa- 
viour. This redemption of the world, this restoration 
of all men to a condition in which the salvation of each 
was made to rest upon his own deliberate and free choice, 
was the universal reconciliation effected by the death of 
Christ. 

Hence the apostle distinguishes between reconciliation 
as a past fact in the history of the race, predicable of all 
men, and salvation as an individual benefit to be after- 
ward realized by those who believe — "For if when we 
were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of 
his Son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved 
by his life." Rom. v. 10. The true nature of this salva- 
tion by the living Saviour, who redeemed us by his death, 
is clearly set forth in Col. i. 21, 22: "You that were 
sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked 
works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of his 
flesh through death, to present you holy and unbla?7iable 
and imrep7'ovable in his sight. ' ' The full purpose of the 
universal reconciliation or redemption of man is plainly 
not realized in us, until Christ who has redeemed men 
from the hand of the enemy, has also redeemed us from 
all iniquity and purified us unto Himself a peculiar people 



THE GREAT RECONCILIATION. 1 57 

zealous of good works. The salvation of them that be- 
lieve was made possible by the redemption of all. The 
bringing back into actual union with God of individual 
believers, was made possible by the reconciliation of 
the world. 

It must never be forgotten that, at the time when the 
Lord appeared on earth, " the enemy had come in like a 
flood;" the powers of hell had risen to such a height 
that moral freedom was wellnigh lost. Life from God, 
coming to man through false and evil media, was per- 
verted. The hereditary propensities of mankind, entailed 
through so many sinful generations, were becoming in- 
creasingly corrupt and increasingly powerful. To rescue 
man, God needed to bow the heavens and come down. 
To encounter the enemies of man, He needed to hide 
Himself, to veil his divinity in man's nature, to be Im- 
manuel, God with us ; so that the Everlasting Father 
might also become the Prince of peace. The condition 
of the world at the time of the Lord's coming was the 
penalty of man's wickedness, the necessary consequence 
of the former and the then actual evils of mankind. 
Their "trespasses" had brought them into this state of 
bondage unto sin, from which only " the Son' 1 could set 
them free. In so far as "God in Christ" remitted to 
mankind the penalty of their sins "through the redemp- 
tion that is in Christ Jesus," there was on God's part an 
act of universal and free forgiveness, which the apostle 
describes as "not imputing their trespasses unto them;" 
that is, not leaving mankind to the consequences of 
their sins. Jesus Christ conquered and subjugated man's 
enemies. He cleared away the spheres of falsity and 

14 



158 WORDS IN SEASON. 

evil in which mankind were immersed, and which inter- 
posed between them and God. He removed the disabil- 
ities which sin had brought upon them. He set all men 
free by the universal reconciliation, so that having been 
redeemed by his death, they might be saved by his life. 

But how did "the death" of Christ effect this great 
reconciliation, this change in the spiritual condition of 
mankind ? 

Our Lord's conflict with the powers of darkness was by 
means of their temptations. By allowing them to assault 
Him in his own person, He triumphed over them "in 
Himself;" and in every such triumph He reduced them 
to subjection, and redeemed us from their power. His 
whole life was a continual conflict with the infernal powers. 
This conflict, ever ending in victory, terminated in the 
endurance of the last temptation, by his obedience unto 
death : " That through death He might destroy him that 
had the power of death, that is the devil." Heb. ii. 14. 
Hence St. John instructs us : " For this purpose the Son 
of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works 
of the devil." 1 John iii. 8. The life of the Saviour in 
the world was a continued process of putting his enemies 
under his feet ; and in like manner his reign in the soul 
of the believer is a gradual subjection of every enemy and 
of all evil. Because of these victories wrought out in 
seasons of temptation, He was "without sin," though He 
"was in all points tempted like as we are." Heb. iv. 15. 
By the same victories, which redeemed us from the hand 
of the enemy, his humanity was glorified, or made "per- 
fect through suffering;" the man Christ Jesus was thus 
rendered capable of being exalted "far above all heav- 






THE GREAT RECONCILIATION. 1 59 

ens, ' ' made the abiding tabernacle of Deity, the recipient 
of "all the fullness of the Godhead;" so that, as "God 
in Christ," He might thenceforth be our all-sufficient 
Saviour and the object of our faith and love. But in 
order that Jesus might fully conquer him that had the 
power of death, He must die ; to make his obedience per- 
fect, He must die; to redeem man from death and hell, 
He must die ; to reconcile the world unto Himself, He 
must die; to enter into his glory, He must die. The last 
enemy in the conflict must be encountered before He 
could say of his warfare, " It is finished." 

The reconciliation effected by the death of Christ, was 
so far the removal of all involuntary hindrances to man's 
return to God, that all may now come boldly to the throne 
of grace. But the full blessings which it was designed to in- 
troduce, can be enjoyed only by those who realize in them- 
selves the personal and actual reconciliation which "God 
in Christ" made possible for all. The work of Christ is 
being completed in them ; for they are not only the re- 
deemed of God, but also the purified, the sanctified, the 
saved. The work is twofold ; and Jesus is called by the 
double title of Redeemer and Saviour. What He did 
potentially for all, He is willing to do actually for each, 
that ' ' we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies 
may serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness 
before Him all the days of our life." Luke i. 74, 75. 



PRAYER. 

Ever-gracious and long-suffering God, who in Christ 
Jesus our Lord didst manifest Thyself in the flesh to re- 



160 WORDS IN SEASON. 

deem all men and to reconcile the world unto Thyself, 
not imputing their trespasses unto them, we would come 
boldly to thy throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy 
and find grace to help in time of need. We bless and 
praise thy holy name for all the wondrous mercies vouch- 
safed unto us thy unworthy children. Even when we 
were sold under sin and in bondage unto evil, Thou didst 
not despise nor forsake thy creatures. When no arm 
but thine Almighty arm could deliver, it was stretched 
forth to redeem us. When the enemy had come in like a 
flood Thou didst lift up thy standard against them, and 
as our Redeemer Thou didst bow the heavens and come 
down. We were altogether gone astray, and Thou didst 
come to seek us. We were lost, and Thou didst come to 
save. Thy mercies are from of old, and shall endure 
unto all generations. 

Grant unto us that while meditating on what Thou 
hast done for all the world, we may desire to realize thy 
priceless mercies in our own souls. Reconcile us to Thy- 
self. Bring back into agreement with Thee all our affec- 
tions and thoughts, all our deeds and words. Thou hast 
banished the strong man armed from the house of our 
souls ; incline our hearts to hear thy voice, to open the 
door and let Thee in, that Thou mayest sup with us and 
we with Thee. May the great salvation which Thou hast 
made possible for all, be actually realized by us, so that 
we may become one with Thee and abide in Thee for 
evermore. Even as Thou hast overcome our enemies for 
us, give us grace that we also may overcome and sit down 
with Thee on thy throne. Even as Thou hast died once 
and can die no more, enable us to die indeed unto sin and 



THE GREAT RECONCILIATION. 



161 



live unto Thee as those that are alive from the dead. 
Help us to fight the good fight of faith, and to endure 
unto the end, that when we have finished our course 
we may receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. 
Amen. 

14* L 





XXVII. 

THE ASCENSION. 

" Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive ; 
Thou hiist received gifts for men ; yea, for the rebellious also, that the 
Lord God might dwell among them." — Psalm lxviii. 18. 

j|N meditating on the Divine work and life of 
our adorable Saviour, our attention is first 
and chiefly arrested by "Jesus Christ, and Him 
crucified" Yet as we continue to study that marvelous 
work and that wondrous life, we are led to think as much 
of Jesus Christ, and Him glorified. The mind turns from 
the contemplation of Gethsemane and Calvary and fol- 
lows the Lord and his disciples to Bethany, where "He 
was parted from them and carried up into heaven." 
The agony and bloody sweat, the cross and passion, fade 
from the immediate thought as we gaze on the beauty 
and listen to the voices of the two men in white apparel, 
saying, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up 
into heaven ? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you 
into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen 
Him go into heaven." Acts i. n. The mourning and 
lamentation that went up at the foot of the cross, are 
exchanged for the "great joy" and the "praising and 
blessing God" of the witnesses of the ascension. 

"Thou hast ascended on high." We must not allow 

162 



THE ASCENSION. 163 

the letter of Scripture to mislead us in the comprehen- 
sion of the sublime truth of the Saviour's ascension. 
We are not to think of heaven as being situated some- 
where in space beyond the natural firmament of stars 
and suns. The ascension was not merely a local trans- 
lation of the Lord's human nature, a mere bodily re- 
moval in space. Such a materialistic conception of 
heaven and the ascension is entertained only by those 
who are ignorant or incapable of the true spiritual idea. 
The altitude of the heavens is a spiritual altitude not 
measurable by miles. Ascension in the spiritual sense is 
exaltation of state, and not merely elevation in space. 
So the ascension of Jesus to God was the final exaltation 
of his human nature, by which it became the abiding 
tabernacle of Deity, the everlasting medium in which 
God dwells and through which He now operates on man. 
This filling out of the human nature of Christ with in- 
finite love and wisdom and power, is what is meant by 
his having "sat down on the right hand of God." The 
birth of Christ was the incarnation of God ; the life of 
Christ on earth was the qualifying of that human nature 
to become the eternal temple wherein God should in- 
finitely dwell ; the death of Christ was the putting off 
of everything that could limit his reception of God, or 
impede the Divine operation through Him ; the resur- 
rection of Christ was the return of his human spirit, now 
made " perfect through sufferings," to the body that was 
crucified; and the ascension of Christ was the complete 
unition in Him of the Divine with the human, the God- 
head with the manhood, so that now "in Him dwelleth 
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. ' ' How great is 



l6| WORDS IN SEASON. 

the glory to which He is exalted as the reward of his 
humiliation and sufferings, we learn from the apostle : 
" Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus : 
who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery 
to be equal with God : but made Himself of no rep- 
utation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and 
was made in the likeness of men : and being found in 
fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became 
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given 
Him a name which is above every name ; that at the 
name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in 
heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth ; 
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ 
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Phil. ii. 5— 11, 
" Thou hast led captivity captive." The life of Christ 
on earth was a warfare against evil and the powers 
thereof, described in prophetic language as " the 
mighty," " the spoiler," "the enemy," " the terrible. " 
The redemption which He achieved was a redemption by 
conquest. The wrath from which He rescued us was the 
rage of the spoiler, the wrath of the devil. He delivered 
man from the hand of his spiritual enemies, from them 
that hated him. " Having spoiled principalities and 
powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing 
over them in Himself." Col. ii. 15. All Christians have 
to " wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against prin- 
cipalities, against powers, against the rulers of the dark- 
ness of this world." Eph. vi. 12. In this they do but 
follow in the steps of their Redeemer, and in his strength 
may overcome even as He overcame. 



THE ASCENSION. 165 

"Thou hast received gifts for men." The glorified 
humanity of Jesus Christ, the everlasting tabernacle of 
Deity, is now the centre of healing and sanctifying 
influences continually poured down from on high, on the 
Church and the world. By the assumption and glorifi- 
cation of the human nature, the Lord not only redeemed 
us from infernal powers ; not only reconciled, or brought 
back into union in Himself the Divine and the human, 
God and man ; not only left for man the perfect example 
of a sinless life of righteousness ; but He also prepared 
for Himself a new and everlasting medium in and 
through which He could reach all men in every con- 
dition of their spiritual degradation, by influx adapted to 
their states. The glorified humanity, " the man Christ 
Jesus," received in Himself the infinite fullness of the 
Divine gifts, so that He might thenceforward impart 
them to mankind. Thus the gift of the Holy Ghost — ■ 
the operation of God in Christ, the Divine proceeding 
through the glorified humanity — was the result of the 
ascension, as it is written: "The Holy Ghost was not 
yet; because that Jesus was not yet glorified." John viii. 
39. Christ bade His apostles tarry at Jerusalem until 
they were endued with power from on high ; and on the 
day of Pentecost, ten days after the ascension, He 
fulfilled His promise and inaugurated a new era in the 
spiritual history of mankind. 

These Divine gifts, received by Jesus Christ for man, 
are happily not confined in their bestowal to the good 
alone. If this were so, who could hope to obtain them ? 
The wondrous mercy of God is shown in the fact, that 
the blessings treasured up for us in the risen and glorified 



1 66 WORDS IN SEASON. 

Mediator were received for all men, "yea, for the re- 
bellious also." Christ died to redeem his enemies ; He 
ever lives to save those who sometime were alienated, 
but who now turn unto Him that they may live. 

The end of the incarnation, sufferings, death, resurrec- 
tion, and ascension of Christ, was "that the Lord God 
might dwell among men." God dwells with the meek 
and lowly, with him that is of a contrite and humble 
spirit, by the presence of his Spirit in their souls, seeking 
to conform them to his own image, and imparting to them 
love and light and life and joy. 

There is a tendency in many minds to dwell too exclu- 
sively on the death of Christ ; but they run the risk of 
thereby losing sight of the fact, that his death was the 
preparation for and the condition of his life-giving pres- 
ence with his Church. Bearing this in mind, the Apostle 
says, "It is Christ that died," and then immediately adds, 
" yea rather that is risen again, who is even at the right 
hand of God." The living Christ is the foundation of all 
Christian hopes, the theme of apostolic joy. "For if, 
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by 
the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we 
shall be saved by his life." Rom. v. 10. All that Christ 
has done and suffered would have been of no benefit to 
man without the mission of the Holy Ghost. Hence He 
said, "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if 
I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; 
but if I depart, I will send Him unto you." John 
xvi. 7. The gift of the Holy Spirit, the bestowal of the 
life-giving influences of the New Age, could only have 
been possible by his going away ; and his going away was 



THE ASCENSION. 167 

his ascension unto God, the completed glorification of his 
human nature. Hence if Jesus be not risen, our faith is 
vain, we are yet in our sins. If Jesus be not glorified, 
our hope of glory is vain, for we can only be glorified 
together with Him. We are heirs only to what He 
has received, joint-heirs with Him in his sufferings and 
glory. 



PRAYER. 

All-glorious and ever-adorable Lord Jesus Christ, 
who art God manifest in the flesh, the only wise God 
our Saviour, who hast ascended on high, who hast led 
captivity captive, who hast received gifts for men; we 
would approach Thee with reverence and godly fear. 
Thou art He that liveth and was dead, and art alive for 
evermore, and hast the keys of hell and of death. We 
bless thy name for all thy wondrous works in our crea- 
tion, redemption, and salvation. We would learn every 
lesson that is taught us by thy life on earth, by thine agony 
and bloody sweat, by the anguish of thy cross, by the 
greatness of thy resurrection, by the glory of thine ascen- 
sion unto the right hand of power. We trust Thee, the 
ever-living, to save us by thy life, even as Thou hast re- 
deemed us by thy death. 

Fulfill in us the gracious purposes of thy love. Deliver 
us from all captivity to evil. Be in us our Emancipator 
from the bondage and slavery of sin. Rescue us from 
the hands of our enemies and from the wrath of all that 
hate us. We have been rebellious, alienated from Thee 
by wicked works ; yet Thou didst come to reconcile us tc 



1 68 WORDS IN SEASON. 

God. May thine infinite loving-kindness overcome our 
obstinacy in unrighteousness, that we may truly turn unto 
Thee and live. 

Pour out thy gifts upon us, O Lord. Give unto us 
more and more abundantly of thy Holy Spirit. May it 
be within us the light of life, revealing to us thy will con- 
cerning us, and ever inclining us to walk in thy ways. 
Inspire our hearts with perfect trust in Thee, with full re- 
signation and entire submission to thy holy will. We 
beseech Thee leave us not comfortless, but come Thou 
into us and abide with us, that thy joy may be in us and 
our joy may be full. 

Grant unto us that we may know Thee and the power 
of thy resurrection; being lifted above the cares and 
pleasures of our lower life ; feeling conscious of thy pres- 
ence, and confident in thy love ; and ever striving to let 
our light so shine before men, that we may glorify thy 
holy name. Amen. 



XXVIII. 




NECESSITY OF GOOD WORKS. 

" These things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which 
have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. 
These things are good and profitable unto men." — Titus iii. 8. 

|]AITH without works is dead." Such a faith is 
useless both to ourselves and others. It is use- 
less to ourselves, because it does not make us 
tender of heart, kind and merciful. It is useless to 
others, because no one is the better for the faith he pro- 
fesses. The only way in which life is exhibited is by 
action. Good works are therefore the evidences of a 
living faith. 

But good works are more even than this. They are a 
means of grace, that is, a means whereby we may grow 
more and more meet for our heavenly inheritance. For 
as by sinning a man becomes worse, so by obedience he be- 
comes better. The doing of evil increases and establishes 
the love of evil in the soul of the sinner. It also confirms 
him in the habit of doing evil ; and by destroying his con- 
science, leads to the unrestrained commission of more gross 
and terrible iniquity. So on the other hand the doing of 
good from the love of good, increases and establishes the 
love of goodness in the soul of the believer. It also con- 
firms him in the habit of doing good, and makes the 

15 169 



170 WORDS IN SEASON. 

doing of good continually more easy and delightful. 
The habit of doing evil is the education of the soul for 
hell : the habit of doing good is the education of the soul 
for heaven. 

Outward acts are the outbirths of inward principles. 
The corrupt fruit of evil is borne by the corrupt tree : the 
bitter water proceeds from a bitter fountain. But by a 
law of Divine order, outward acts strengthen the inward 
principles from which they spring. These principles, 
thus strengthened, stimulate to increased action; and 
thus, by an alternating increase of cause and effect, a 
man grows, both inwardly and outwardly, the worse for 
the evil that he does. So also good works, springing 
from faith and love, react upon the soul and make a 
man, both inwardly and outwardly, the better for the 
doing of them. Love and faith not ultimated in good 
works, will languish and die. Active righteous?iess is 
therefore absolutely necessary to spiritual life and growth. 

The merciful purpose of the Lord concerning us all is 
to form within us a truly Christian character ; that is, to 
make us altogether like Christ. But a man's true charac- 
ter consists of what he loves, of what he thinks, and of what 
he does. Not one of these three can be omitted. The 
character of our Saviour combines all his tenderness of 
love, all his perfectness of wisdom, all his deeds of mercy. 
The ultimate end of all that the Lord does in us and for 
us, is to make us good in heart and mind and life. So 
that loving affections and desires, and the knowledge of 
the laws and conditions of heavenly life, are given us on 
purpose that we may do good. They who attain not to this 
characteristic of the Saviour — "He went about doing 



NECESSITT OF GOOD WORKS. I?I 

good" — altogether fail to realize the Divine will concern- 
ing them. 

Besides, obedience from right principles opens the soul to 
the i?iflowing of the Holy Spirit, which cleanses and sanc- 
tifies the soul that freely submits to the Divine operation. 
Be it ever remembered that only the Lord can cleanse 
and purify the soul. Even the fact that what we do re- 
acts upon the soul and strengthens the principle from 
which the action springs, is a Divine appointment. It is 
one of the laws of spirit, according to which the Creator 
operates in the soul of man. Just as He causes the earth 
to be fruitful according to certain natural laws — which are 
indeed no more than the modes in which God is operative 
in nature — so in the purification of man's soul the Lord 
operates according to certain spiritual laws. One of these 
laws or modes of Divine operation is this: Obedience 
from a right motive opens the soul to the inflowing of the 
Holy Spirit, that purifies the soul from evils and implants 
holy desires and affections in their stead. Continued 
obedience, therefore, is the only means of developing a 
truly Christian character. It is man's part in the great 
work ; the condition under and during which the Lord 
does his own glorious and Divine work — the cleansing 
and sanctifying of the soul itself. Well, then, may the 
Apostle say, "These things are good and profitable unto 
men. ' ' They help to make the soul heavenly even while 
the man is living in the world. They prepare him to re- 
ceive more fully of the Lord's gracious gifts. They in- 
crease his fitness for the heavenly inheritance, which the 
infinite mercy of God has provided for those who are 
conformed to his own image and likeness. 



172 WORDS IN SEASON. 

There is yet another sense in which obedience is good 
and profitable unto men. It brings with -it a present 
recompense in this life. The ever-bounteous Lord does 
not intend that all the joy of his creatures should be post- 
poned until they reach heaven. So truly good is He, 
that even here He permits us to have a foretaste of heav- 
enly blessedness and delight. He has ordained that we 
should compass true happiness only in the way of duty : 
not merely that duty should be the condition of happiness 
to come, but that in duty itself, the spontaneous expres- 
sion of holy and benevolent affections toward God and 
man, we should find our satisfying and enduring reward. 
Not only do wisdom's ways lead to pleasantness, but they 
are pleasantness ; not only do her paths lead to peace, but 
they are peace. Love is richest in joy when we seek to 
manifest it in deeds of love. Happiness, whether here or 
in heaven, is found in the effort to make others happy. 
The law of delight is the law of use — of doing good to 
others. By bringing us into the good and orderly state 
of tenderness, mercy, charity, the Lord brings us into 
blessedness. Hence the doing of good works is immedi- 
ately as well as prospectively profitable unto men. 

It is true, however, that in the beginning of the re- 
generate life, obedience springs from a sense of duty 
rather than from inclination. We have to restrain our- 
selves from doing wrong, and to compel ourselves to do 
right. The reason of this is — the obedience of faith pre- 
cedes the obedience of love. But doing good from a sense 
of duty is the first step toward doing good from the love 
of goodness. The habit of obeying the Lord from the 
desire to be and to do good, opens the soul to a Divine 



NE CESS ITT OF GOOD WORKS. 173 

influx which will gradually change the character of our 
motives. The obedience which at first seemed hard, 
will, when the love of goodness becomes our ruling 
principle of action, be found a joyous service. We 
enter into harmony with the Lord, and find that "his 
commandments are not grievous," and that "in keep- 
ing of them there is great reward." 

One great practical lesson we may learn from this, 
viz. : that when faith seems weak and love cold, the 
best way to revive these drooping graces is activity in 
duty. Prayer is needful, but not sufficient of itself. 
Pious meditation is useful, but will not of itself prove 
efficacious. Reading the Bible is a good medicine, but 
will not alone restore the soul. With pious thoughts 
in our minds, and the spirit of prayer in our hearts, we 
must go forth, compelling ourselves to the duty which 
we see is to be done ; and the love of doing the duty 
will grow, the love of goodness will be developed, joy 
will come to us, and we shall find by experience that, as 
a means of grace in such seasons of need, "these things 
are good and profitable unto men." 



PRAYER. 

Most holy and ever-blessed Lord Jesus, who hast 
given unto us the word of truth, the gospel of our salva- 
tion, that we may learn and do thy will, and who hast 
promised to give power unto all that believe in Thee to 
become the sons of God, we humbly beseech Thee tc 
quicken our hearts with love to Thee and to all men. 



1 74 WORDS IN SEASON. 

Grant unto us a living faith which works by love and 
delights in doing good. By the light of thy truth guide 
our feet in the ways of wisdom and the paths of peace. 

Thou hast made the doing of good profitable unto 
men ; enable us to obtain the many spiritual blessings 
connected therewith. Increase in us the desire to be- 
come like Thee. Confirm us in the habit of well-doing. 
Quicken our consciences to discern evil, and incline our 
hearts to put it far away from us. May every good 
affection which Thou dost implant within us, continually 
bring forth the good fruit of loving, merciful, and cha- 
ritable deeds. Bestow upon us a present recompense in 
the joy of serving Thee, which is the sweet assurance of 
the joy that shall be when we meet Thee in thy kingdom, 
where thy. joy shall be in us and our joy shall be full. 
Teach us the blessedness of ministering to others ; and 
when we are cold and indifferent, show us a duty that 
we can do, and help us to find light and life and joy 
therein. Thus fulfill in us thy gracious will while we 
remain on earth, that when it shall please Thee to call 
us hence we may be fitted for the higher uses of thy 
kingdom in heaven. Amen. 



XXIX. 



CONDITIONS OF ACCEPTABLE OBEDIENCE. 




" Trust in the Lord and do good. — Psalm xxxvii. 3. 

j|OR a work to be called " good " it is not enough 
that it is externally conformable to the letter of 
the Divine law. That which appears good in 
the sight of men, may be abomination in the sight of 
God; "For the Lord seeth not as man seeth ; for man 
looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord look- 
eth on the heart." 1 Sam. xvi. 7. The moral character 
of everything we do, depends on the motive from which 
we act. Such as is the motive of the act, such is the 
moral quality of the act. When the motive is good the 
act is good. When the heart is right in the sight of God, 
every deed which springs from the pure affections of that 
heart, is a " good work " in the sight of God. 

The Saviour has taught us what motives are good — 
love to God and love to the neighbor. Whatever is done 
from a merely selfish motive, to gratify selfishness in any 
of its myriad forms, is not good but evil. However good 
in appearance, it is hateful to the Lord and hurtful to 
ourselves. It turns us away from the Lord. It so far 
shuts up our souls against the influx of life from Him. 
It confirms selfishness in the soul, and inclines us to be 

175 



176 WORDS IN SEASON. 

more fully of the earth, earthly. The principle of the 
carnal mind, which is enmity against God, is selfishness, 
a constant turning to self, thinking of self, and pandering 
to self. The purpose of the Saviour is to rescue us from 
this state. From being lovers of self and of the world, 
He wills that we should become lovers of God and of the 
neighbor. Instead of our actions springing from those 
selfish and carnal dispositions, He wills that they should 
spring from these heavenly affections, and so become 
truly good. 

The Lord alone has life in and from Himself. All 
other beings live by influx of life from Him, and that 
from moment to moment. But observe : the Lord does 
not desire that men should be mere machines, even 
though the working of such machines might be faultless. 
While He is the unfailing source of life to man, yet in 
order that man might have the power of free determina- 
tion, He has so ordered his gift that it seems to all men as 
if they live of and from themselves. It seems to us as if 
our life were really our own, self-derived and self-direct- 
ed. Only in this way could the Giver of life so far 
separate Himself from the recipients, as to leave them 
conscious of individual existence and free to employ their 
life according to their will. The connection between 
human life and its Divine source is unbroken ; but while 
it is true that "in Him we live and move and have our 
being," life from God is so imparted that it seems to us 
as if it were independently our own. 

This is the case with natural life, and it is the case also 
with spiritual life. While in very truth "it is God that 
worketh in us both to will and to do," yet it seems to us 



TRUST IN THE LORD. 1 77 

that both the will and the power to do are our own. The 
Lord thereby secures to man a spiritual individuality in 
the good that he does ; He thus preserves in him spiritual 
liberty at the same time that He imparts to him spiritual 
good. The new nature which prompts the Christian to 
do good, seems to him as truly his own, as did his former 
merely natural life. The promptings of the new heart 
and the right spirit seem to him as fully the spontaneous 
impulses of his own will, as did the prior promptings of 
his unregenerate mind. Thus faith in the Lord as the 
Source of spiritual life, does not interfere with man's 
liberty. The angels who realize with fullest conviction 
that they live only by influx of life from the Lord, are 
conscious of the most perfect freedom. 

While continually leading him to love and do good, 
the Lord thus preserves to man his power of free deter- 
mination in regard to spiritual things. Hence man should 
constantly strive to cherish within himself the love of 
God and of the neighbor, and to carry these holy 
affections into practice ; nevertheless, with the ever- 
present conviction that all the will and power to do good 
are from the Lord alone. While trusting in the Lord, 
we should strive to do good ; and while ever striving to 
do good, we should continually trust in the Lord. 

Without such a faith in the Lord's ever-present and 
all-sufficient grace, the works we do are not "good 
works." One reason is because we do not then give 
unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. We spirit- 
ually "rob God" when we do not acknowledge the 
Divine proprietorship in all that is good. We are to do 
good as from ourselves, yet not from ourselves. The 
M 



17S WORDS IN SEASON. 

distinction is important ; for in the first case we ascribe 
our sufficiency to God, and in the second to ourselves. 
The spiritual consequences to the soul are totally diverse ; 
for in one case the soul is opened to the influx of spiritual 
life from the Lord, and in the other it is closed. It is 
only when we are " strong in faith, giving glory to God " 
as the Source of all goodness, that our works are " count- 
ed to us for righteousness." The loving Lord does not 
require of us this acknowledgment of Him for his own 
sake, but because we thereby become receptive from Him 
of spiritual life, peace and joy. It is not because He is 
jealous of his own honor, but because He is desirous of 
our welfare. 

It is said that ' ' without faith it is impossible to please 
God," and that "whatsoever is not of faith is sin." 
These momentous truths cannot be too much pondered. 
Faith gives acceptableness to works in two ways. 

(1) By the motives which it sets before us — teaching us 
to shun evil because it is sin against the Lord ; and to do 
good because it is pleasing in his sight. 

In thus continually looking to the Lord, and doing 
everything as under his all-seeing eye, our souls are 
open to the influx of spiritual life from Him ; the Spirit 
itself witnesseth with our spirit that we are the children 
of God ; and we have a joy in obedience which is at 
once a token of its acceptance and its exceeding great 
reward. 

(2) By correcting our natural te?idency to self righteous- 
ness — teaching us that all our sufficiency is of the Lord, 
who worketh in us both to will and to do. 

The Lord is the sole Author and Giver of all good in 



TRUST IN THE LORD. 1 79 

man ; and this good is given so continuously that we are 
as dependent upon Him as the branches upon the vine. 
It does indeed seem to us that we do good of our own 
selves ; but faith corrects this appearance, and teaches us 
that all the merit and praise for human goodness is due to 
the Lord alone. If in the spirit of self-righteousness we 
"give not God the glory," our works are not of faith; 
we arrest the influx of spiritual life from the Lord ; and 
"being lifted up with pride, we fall into the condemna- 
tion of the devil." 

The more we increase in knowledge and in goodness, 
the more we shall realize that all our sufficiency is of the 
Lord, from whom alone all holy desires, all good coun- 
sels, and all just works proceed. We learn our ownworth- 
lessness, our own nothingness, the more largely we receive 
the Lord's gifts. The increase of those gifts will make us 
wiser and better ; but humility will grow with the great- 
ness. The highest angels acknowledge that God in them 
is all, and that they are as nothing before Him. 



PRAYER. 



O Lord Jesus Christ, in whom dwelleth all the full- 
ness of the Godhead bodily, we approach Thee as the 
great self-subsistent Jehovah, the Source of life, in whom 
we live and move and have our being, and the Giver of 
every good and perfect gift. Thou dost desire that we 
should become truly blessed by receiving thy truth into 
our minds and thy love into our hearts. Thou dost de- 
sire to enter into and reign in our souls, so that the joys 



I So WORDS IN SEASON. 

of thy kingdom may be ours. We bless and praise Thee 
for all thy mercies toward us. 

We have learned by many experiences that of ourselves 
we can do no good thing. Our carnal minds are at en- 
mity with Thee and would prompt us alone to selfishness 
and sin. Of ourselves we should do evil, and that con- 
tinually. We bless Thee that Thou hast not left us to 
ourselves. By thy love Thou dost urge us to desire that 
which is good ; and by thy wisdom Thou dost seek to 
guide our feet into the ways of righteousness and peace. 
Thou dost reveal Thyself as our continual helper and our 
all-sufficient strength. 

Enable us to set Thee always before us, shunning evil 
because it is sin against Thee, and doing good because it 
is pleasing in thy sight. Deliver us from the delusion of 
self-righteousness, and incline us to ascribe all merit and 
praise to thy holy name. Give unto us to discern more 
clearly thy Spirit working within us, that we may joy in 
the assurance that we are indeed thy children. Thus 
may we show forth thy praise here on earth, that we may 
be prepared to serve and praise Thee in thy heavenly 
kingdom for ever. Amen. 





ftf 


A 




ik^ H T 





XXX. 




THE LAW OF GROWTH AND HAPPINESS. 

" As every one hath received the gift, even so minister the same 
one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." — 
i Peter iv. 10. 

HERE is one great and comprehensive truth 
that underlies all the practical teaching of the 
New Testament, viz., that we are not our own. 
So opposed to all selfishness is the spirit of Christianity, 
that it denies to us the right of claiming as our own 
anything that we have or are. We have no right to 
do as we like with our lives, our talents, or our worldly 
possessions. They are given to us in order that they 
may be of use, and that in the orderly use of them we 
may further our own development and well-being, and 
find our true happiness. 

We can use or waste our talents according to our own 
good pleasure ; yet in regard to them we are as stewards 
who are accountable to the Giver. We can defeat the 
purpose for which He gave them, but we cannot escape 
the reckoning. The purpose for which our talents are 
entrusted to us, is that we may be made mediums of blessing 
to others ; and the good Lord has so ordered, that our 
endeavors to be of use to others react ufioii ourselves. 
The Lord is a true economist in all his works. He so 

16 181 



132 WORDS IN SEASON. 

orders everything that it shall subserve many purposes. 
The soul that does good to others, grows in goodness. 
He that is a medium of blessing to others, is himself 
blessed thereby. Hence selfishness is folly as well as 
sin ; for while it prevents our doing good to others, 
in the same degree it prevents our doing good to 
ourselves. 

In regard to spiritual gifts, the more we communicate, 
the more we shall receive. The law of increase is the 
law of use. The Saviour teaches this great law in these 
words: "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good 
measure, pressed down and shaken together, and running 
over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the 
same measure that ye mete withal, it shall be measured 
to you again." Luke vi. 38. This Divine law rules in 
regard to spiritual things, both on earth and in heaven. 
We must minister because we have received ; and we 
must minister that we may receive more abundantly. 
In ministering to others we enter into the true order 
of our life. Our life comes from God, who is the uni- 
versal Giver. It must therefore impel us to give ; it 
must prompt us to words of help and deeds of use. 
If we are not conscious of this impulse, it is because 
our life, although received from God, has become per- 
verted in our reception of it. The more it retains of 
the character of its Divine original, the more must it 
impel us to act in a God-like way, and give. The Sa- 
viour's greatness and oneness with God was shown in 
this, among many other things, that He came "not to be 
ministered unto, but to minister." He was the greatest 



THE LAW OF GROWTH. 183 

of all, because He was the servant of all. In seeking 
to resemble Him, we enter into harmony with the Divine 
purpose, which is that all may be blessed, and that they 
may realize their own blessedness in seeking to bless 
each other. 

We must, however, communicate to others for their 
sakes, and not merely to serve our own ends. While 
it is true that they who give are enriched, that they who 
teach learn, that they who help grow strong, that they 
who bless are blessed ; yet if in giving we only think of 
our prospective gain, if in blessing we only think of the 
richer blessing we shall receive, the apparently unselfish 
act is really a deed of the most refined and intense 
selfishness. The selfish motive vitiates the efficacy of 
the seemingly unselfish act. By the universal law of 
reaction, that very act only tends to confirm our own 
selfishness. The love of use, that is, the desire to do 
good to others, and not the love of self, or the desire to 
benefit ourselves, should be the leading motive in all we 
do. If tried by such a test, how many who are engaged 
in worldly uses would be found wanting ! Raging desires 
to gain riches, ease, indulgence, honor, authority, burn in 
the hearts of multitudes. The last thought that comes 
to many, or the last that is entertained and cherished 
by them, is that the master purpose of a true maris life 
is to be useful to others! There is no duty so mean 
that it would not be ennobled by this motive. There 
is no function so dignified that it would not receive 
from this motive fresh dignity and lustre. All that God 
does is for his creatures, and not for Himself. They 
most fully enter into the joy of their Lord, who most 



154 WORDS IN SEASON. 

fully resemble Him in this Divine attribute of disinter- 
ested beneficence. 

Love, wisdom, and use are the elements of angelic life. 
In heaven, where the laws of Divine order are perfectly 
obeyed, love and wisdom received continually from the 
Lord, are ultimated or find their embodiment in use. We 
may know but little of what are the employments of 
angels; but of this. we may be sure — that for those of 
his creatures whom God fills with love, He provides 
others that may be loved ; and for those whom He 
endows with superior wisdom, He provides others that 
may be taught. Wisdom is infinite only in God. In 
all created intelligences wisdom can exist only in a 
relative degree, as more or less. That the Lord should 
make the wiser angels mediums of instruction to the less 
wise, does not lower our conception of the felicity and 
perfectness of heaven. Surely it may be thought that 
new-coming spirits fresh from earth, must need and may 
profit from the loving instruction of their elder brethren 
of the skies. The felicity of heaven, it may well be 
believed, does not consist merely in the reception of 
"the manifold grace of God" by each angel for him- 
self, but also in "ministering the same one to another, 
as good stewards ' ' thereof. 

One thing our experience may teach us : whenever we 
are actively engaged in the uses of charity, from the love 
of doing good, we are most richly and consciously 
blessed. The reason is, that we are thereby brought 
into association with those angels of the Lord's kingdom 
who are in the love of similar uses ; and those angels are 
made to us mediums of blessings from the Lord by im- 



THE LAW OF GROWTH. 1 85 

parting to us of their affections and delights. Thus by 
the law of spiritual affinity, which draws together those 
who are animated by similar affections, the angels, though 
unseen, associate with us and fit us for the higher uses 
of the eternal world. In this way they are "ministering 
spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs 
of salvation." Heb. i. 14. 

One precious saying of the Lord Jesus pertinent to the 
subject now before us, though not expressly recorded in 
the Gospels, has been handed down to us by St. Paul : 
"It is more blessed to give than to receive." The de- 
light of the natural man is to get; the delight of the spir- 
itual man is to give. The truly beneficent man is the hap- 
piest man. He derives a purer and a deeper joy from the 
luxury of giving to make others happy, than he does in- 
receiving from others. 

There is no good thing we have received from the 
Lord to which the injunction in the text does not apply. 
It enunciates a universal duty. No gift is bestowed for 
ourselves alone, "that we may consume it upon our 
lusts. ' ' Others are to be made better, or wiser, or hap- 
pier, because of every gift we have received. Indeed, 
receiving involves the duty of imparting unto others, so 
that all may be blessed. The strong must help the weak ; 
the wise must teach the ignorant ; the well-off must assist 
the needy ; those that have the light of truth must not 
hide it under a bushel ; those that have received the grace 
of God, must minister unto others as stewards ; and those 
that are blessed with the love of God shed abroad in 
their hearts, must love the brethren and abound in deeds 
of love. So shall they grow up into the image and fulfill 



1 86 WORDS IN SEASON. 

the purpose of the all-loving Father ; and so shall they be 
prepared to join the general assembly of the Church of 
the first-born whose names are written in heaven, the in- 
numerable company of angels, and the spirits of just men 
made perfect. 



PRAYER. 

O most gracious and loving Lord, thine infinite good- 
ness is shown in all thy works, and in all thy dealings 
with the children of men. Thou art the Author and 
Giver of every good gift. Our lives are not our own. 
Our talents are not our own. Our worldly possessions 
are only lent us for a little while. We are stewards under 
Thee in respect to all we have and are. Thy manifold 
grace demands our gratitude. Incline our hearts to bless 
Thee for all thy mercies. 

Help us to remember that we are to render an account 
of our stewardship. May we so employ the talents Thou 
hast entrusted to us, that we may become instrumental 
under thy providence in blessing others. By rightly 
using thy blessings, may we become fitted to receive yet 
more abundantly. Enable us to enter into the true order 
of life, into harmony with thy Divine purposes, and so into 
thy joy. 

Guard us from all self-seeking in the good which Thou 
dost enable us to do. Fill our hearts with the love of use. 
Teach us the sweet lesson of humility, the greatness of 
service when springing from unfeigned love. May thy 
example be the great pattern of our lives ; and as Thou 



THE LAW OF GROWTH. 187 

earnest not to be ministered unto, but to minister, so teach 
us to delight in being the servant of all. May we realize 
the blessedness of association with thine angels, and be 
prepared in our turn to become thy messengers. Thus 
learning to know that the joy of giving is greater than 
that of receiving, our grateful and adoring hearts will 
ever praise thy glorious name. Amen. 




XXXI. 




S/JVS OF BELIEVERS. 

" Cast me not away from thy presence ; and take not thy Holy 
Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation ; and up- 
hold me with thy free Spirit." — Psalm li. n, 12. 

HE Psalms are marvelously adapted to all the 
varying phases of Christian experience. They 
contain a description of every state. They fur- 
nish prayers and praises suited to every change in our 
spiritual condition. They are profitable for encourage- 
ment, for guidance, for warning, for rebuke. As out of a 
Divine storehouse the soul may draw whatever of daily 
bread it needs to meet its daily wants. God has been 
very gracious unto his people in having inspired the min- 
strel king of Israel to pour forth his soul in these Psalms. 
He has proved his loving-kindness in having providen- 
tially preserved them for our comfort and instruction. 

The Psalms show — what other portions of the Divine 
Word declare, and what frequent experience testifies — 
that a believer may fall into sin. The strength of his 
hereditary evils called into activity by the incitement of 
some external circumstance, may prove too much for him. 
The pressure of the temptation may seem to him more 
than he can bear ; and he may fail to realize that, with 

188 



SINS OF BELIEVERS. 189 

the temptation which God permits, He ever gives strength 
to overcome, if in striving against sin we look to Him for 
help. In a moment of passion, of infirmity, of careless- 
ness, of unbelief, the enemy may gain an advantage over 
him, and he may fall into sin. What then is the penalty 
of his unfaithfulness, and how does it affect his confidence 
toward God ? 

The inevitable effect of all sin will come upon him. It 
will bring a cloud over his soul, which will hide the light 
of God's countenance from him. It will destroy his 
peace, interrupt the consciousness of God's presence and 
favor, and deprive him of the joy of his salvation. 
Having grieved and resisted the Spirit, he may sink into 
indifference for a while, but at length, stung with re- 
morse, he will be tempted to despair. The enemy of 
souls will suggest to him that it is useless to strive against 
sin ; will mock him because of his weakness, taunt him 
with his fall, and tempt him to abandon the service of 
God as a hopeless task. Having betrayed him into sin, 
the enemy will seek to keep him from repenting, and 
will try to induce him to give himself up to sin without 
restraint. All this is the devil's work in man. It is not 
God who brings the believer's soul into such a state of 
misery and despair, but God's enemy and ours. The 
Lord permits it as a means of leading the soul, by a bitter 
experience into deeper contrition, into a more humble 
watchfulness, into a stronger conviction of the necessity 
of continually depending on Him, into a more susceptible 
consciousness, so that being forgiven we may "go and 
sin no more." 

The means of attaining to a realized forgiveness are 



190 WORDS IN SEASON. 

close at hand. They are penitence and prayer, watchful- 
ness, and a more resolute striving against all evil as sin 
against the Lord. It is wrong to think that feeding our 
remorse, inflicting upon ourselves mental punishment, 
prolonging our misery of soul, a constant tearing open 
of the wounds of our conscience and making them bleed 
afresh, will help us to regain the joy of salvation and the 
consciousness of God's presence and favor. These are 
devices of the enemy, who would discourage and dismay 
us, rather than encourage us to hope, and stimulate us 
to trust in God. 

The forgiveness of the sin of a believer is not an act of 
Divine mercy external to himself, but it is the re?noval of 
the spiritual penalties of the sin. Peace returns to the 
soul ; conscience ceases to torment with a sense of guilt ; 
remembrance of the sin no longer brings back the dark 
hour and the dread of God, but makes the soul more 
humble, more prayerful, and more watchful against sin. 
The Lord restores the light of his countenance and the 
joy of his salvation, renews the sense of reconciliation 
with Him, and opens the soul afresh to the influx of his 
grace. He has then recovered it out of the snare of the 
devil, and has once more begun to uphold it with his free 
Spirit. He has thus worked out the Divine purpose of 
his permission, viz., to inspire the soul with a deeper 
abhorrence of sin, a more interior aversion to it, and a 
more resolute determination to shun it for the time to 
come. 

It would, however, be a fatal abuse of the Divine 
mercy and forbearance for a man to suppose that, instead 
of conquering his besetting sin, he may go on sinning 



SINS OF BELIEVERS. 191 

and repenting, sinning and repenting, all his life. It must 
never be forgotten that evil grows upon us if we do not 
grow in goodness. Down the terrible steps which lead to 
hell, the soul must descend which does not "resist the 
devil." These steps are unmistakable — yielding occa- 
sionally to sin, then sinning habitually, and then taking 
delight in sin. It is true that we can put no limits to the 
Divine forgiveness ; the loving Lord never refuses his 
mercy and grace to those who truly repent. This, how- 
ever, can be said — that, so far as a man acquires the 
habit of sinning and grows into finding his delight in 
sin, so far he closes his soul against God, sears his con- 
science, and makes repentance more difficult and less 
probable. 

The Christian who has fallen into sin may have hope 
in the mercy of the Lord ; and in the example of those 
who have fallen, or in the experience of their own 
weakness, all may see the need of watchfulness, so as 
to discern and shun the first approaches of evil. We 
are soldiers of the cross, besieged by spiritual foes, and 
must not allow the wary and subtle enemy to carry- 
even our outworks. Little sins so speedily become great 
ones ! We may see the necessity of prayer, so that in 
the hour of temptation we may be strong in the Lord 
and in the power of his might. We may see the im- 
perativeness of a patient continuance in well-doing, a 
faithful and diligent discharge of every duty, a finding 
for ourselves some work of mercy or of use. Idleness 
is the devil's opportunity. We may also see the ne- 
cessity of instant repentance when "we have been be- 
trayed into sin. Delaying to repent weakens the desire 



192 WORDS IN SEASON. 

to repent. Temporizing with sin makes sin less hated 
and less grievous. 

Unwillingness to confess our sins and to implore 
pardon, very often arises from distrust of the mercy 
of the Lord. This distrust is one of the consequences 
of sin. We are naturally averse to approach the Lord 
against whom we have sinned. Our fears invest Him 
with an aspect of terror, and we shrink from Him as 
from an object of dread. While it is well to meditate 
upon our guilt and its aggravations, so that we may 
confess our sins and humble ourselves before the Lord, 
this mistrust of God is one of "the wiles of the devil." 
It seems to us that the Lord is angry, because of the 
cloud which sin has brought over us, and which obscures 
our perception of the sunshine of his love. God needs 
not to be appeased ; but we, in our suspicion and dread, 
need to be reconciled to Him. He is the unchangeable 
God, whose compassions fail not; and He would not 
have taught us the prayer in the text if He had not 
purposed to enable us to realize its fulfillment. 



PRAYER. 

O Lord God of our salvation, who art merciful and 
gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and 
truth, we confess unto Thee our omissions of duty, and 
the many sins we have committed in thought, word, and 
deed, through our own most grievous fault. Have mercy 
upon us according to thy loving-kindness ; according to 
the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out our trans- 



SINS OF BELIEVERS. 1 93 

gressions. Wash us thoroughly from our iniquity and 
cleanse us from our sin. Create in us a clean heart, O 
God ; and renew a right spirit within us. Cast us not 
away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit 
from us. Restore unto us the joy of thy salvation, and 
uphold us with thy free Spirit. 

Preserve us by thy grace from those sins which so 
easily beset us, restrain us from those evils and follies 
into which we are so prone to fall. Enable us to watch 
and guard against our peculiar temptations, to redeem 
the time, and to pursue with steady progress the narrow 
way that leads to life. Whenever we are tempted to 
go back from Thee, give us that godly sorrow which 
worketh repentance unto salvation. By the promises of 
thy Holy Word, arm us against the cruel suggestions of 
the enemy which would tempt us to despair of thy 
mercy. By the experience of what an evil and a bitter 
thing it is to forsake Thee, make us more humble, more 
prayerful, more watchful against sin, more faithful in thy 
service. Guard and guide us through all our mortal 
course ; and when our warfare is over receive us to thy 
rest above, where they who have been faithful unto death 
shall receive the crown of eternal life. 

And all merit and praise will we ever ascribe unto thy 
holy name, in which we ask all things for thy tender 
mercies' sake. Amen. 

17 N 



XXXII. 



CONFESSION OF SIN 

" I acknowledge my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not 
hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord ; and 
Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." — Psalm xxxii. 5. • 

jlROMINENT among the conditions of forgiveness 
is the duty of confession. Hence St. John says, 
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just 
to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unright- 
eousness." 1 John i. 9. Even among the Israelites, 
before any trespass-offering could be accepted, the 
person bringing the sacrifice must " confess that he hath 
sinned." Lev. v. 5. The purpose of the Lord is not 
only to remit the punishment of sin, but also to purge 
and purify the soul of the sinner, so that he who sinned 
shall sin no more, and he who found delight in sin 
should turn to hate it with all his heart. It is mercy — 
not vengeance — in God, which has made sorrow and 
suffering the inevitable consequences of evil. The state 
of sinfulness is a state of spiritual disorder. Until this 
disorderly state is removed, the reception of peace and 
joy, of light and love from God, is impossible. It must 
actually be removed from our souls before it can be 
spiritually well with us, just as a state of disorder must 

194 



CONFESSION OF SIN. 1 95 

be actually removed from the body before we can be 
physically sound and whole. 

In removing the disorder of sin, man's voluntary co- 
operation with the Spirit of God is necessary. The 
process of regenerating the soul, of bringing it into a 
state of order and harmony with the Lord, cannot be 
effected without man's consent. It is the process where- 
by man is led by the Lord into the hatred of all that is 
false and evil, and into the love of all that is true and 
good. Therefore it is necessary that a man should be 
able to discern sin in himself, — to perceive that he is a 
sinner. Therefore it is necessary that he should be able 
to see what a dreadful, hateful and lamentable thing sin 
really is. Only by such means can man be led to hate 
evil and choose good, to seek deliverance from evil and 
desire to grow in goodness, to come to the Lord, the 
good Physician, to be cleansed of his spiritual diseases 
and be restored to spiritual health. He must grow weary 
of his old life of selfishness and sin, before he will con- 
sent to lose it for the sake of the higher life which the 
Lord is willing and ever ready to bestow. 

Because of these things, the confession of sin is en- 
joined. We must discern sin in ourselves before we can 
really confess it. We must desire to forsake sin before our 
confession is anything more than mere lip-service. When 
confession is genuine, there is beneath it a deep longing 
of the soul to be delivered from the power of evil, and to 
attain to a consciousness of the Divine favor. Mere lip- 
service in confession is of no avail. It cannot avail, 
because only they who feel their own sinfulness, and in- 
wardly desire as well as outwardly strive to shun evil as 



196 WORDS IN SEASON. 

sin against the Lord, can ever attain to a realized forgive- 
ness. The souls of such lip-servers are still closed j they 
cannot receive pardon and healing strength from the 
Lord. They are among those of whom the Lord said : 
" This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, 
and honoreth me with their lips ; but their heart is far 
from me." Matt. xv. 8. True confession is heartfelt. 
It implies — 

(1) Conviction of sin. The soul does not merely 
repeat words in a set form. It knows that it has sinned : 
it discerns wherein it has sinned and come short of the 
glory of God ; it knows that its sins have brought a dark 
cloud between it and the Lord. It is just as conscious 
of having sinned, as it is conscious that it is alive. 

(2) Humility because of sin. The soul feels ashamed 
of itself. It is pained by the knowledge of its own weak- 
ness Its self-love, its self-pride, its trust in its own 
strength, are rudely shattered to pieces. It has nothing 
to urge in extenuation of its guilt. It can only cry, 
" God be merciful to me a sinner." 

(3) Penitence for sin. The soul desires to escape 
from its state of sin, as well as from the state of wretch- 
edness which sin has brought upon it. It approaches 
God's mercy-seat, mourning as well as humble, beseech- 
ing pardoning grace, and owning that of itself it is only 
evil. It hates the sin into which it has fallen. It comes 
to God, like a little child to his father, earnestly craving 
to obtain strength so as to be able to go and sin no 
more. 

All these inward feelings of conviction, humility, and 
penitence take form in thought, and find expression and 



CONFESSION OF SIN. 197 

relief in words. They are thereby drawn out as well as 
intensified and confirmed. Love that never outwardly 
manifests itself, is but a cold and feeble affection. A 
thought that is never expressed, is in danger of fading 
away from the mind. Hence the necessity for oral con- 
fession of our sins to God. It perfects the perception 
of our state, it intensifies the feeling of our wants, it 
develops the receptivity of the soul. 

This oral confession is to be made to God alone. " I 
acknowledge my sin unto Thee. ... I will confess my 
transgressions unto the Lord." Our sins are transgres- 
sions against Him. He alone is able to pardon. Unto 
Him only is our confession due. When, however, we 
have sinned against our neighbor, it is our duty to con- 
fess our fault to the person against whom we have sinned. 
This is what is meant by the apostle: "Confess your 
faults one to another." James v. 16. The sin we have 
committed against our brother should be confessed to 
our brother. Sometimes this is a greater trial of our 
humility than confessing our sins to God. Even in 
other cases, though not a duty, it may be a relief to the 
soul to disclose its burden and its grief to a loving and 
sympathizing friend. It may be, however, that the sin 
is so grievous that it is better not to confess it to man at 
all. Then the soul has to bear a terrible addition to its 
burden, in the secret consciousness that it is so deeply 
guilty that it dare not show its guilt to man. What 
depths of humility must that soul know when it presents 
itself before God ! 

Confession should not be merely vague and general, 
but also special. In ordinary states, general confession 



190 WORDS IN SEASON. 

is useful and necessary. For public worship, in which 
many join, confession of sin is necessarily in general 
terms, so as to suit the states of all. Yet even in public 
worship each one for himself should give definiteness to 
the general form of confession — that is,* the words should 
remind each, not only of the general fact of his sinful- 
ness, but of those particular sins of which he knows him- 
self to be guilty. In our private prayers, in the con- 
fessions which we make when alone with God, our 
special transgressions and shortcomings require special 
confession. We need to be convicted of our own sins, to 
be humbled because of them, to repent of the sins we have 
actually committed or desired to commit. 

Confession to God in the true spirit of repentance 
opens the whole soul to Him. It opens the heart which 
in the act of confession mourns because of its sins. It 
opens the mind in which such mourning penitence takes 
form in thought. It opens the operative powers of the 
soul to receive help and strength from the Giver of all 
good. This opening of the soul to God brings relief. 
The experience of multitudes of Christians would prove 
this. We may meditate long upon our weakness and 
folly in sinning, we may dwell upon the aggravations of 
our guilt, we may feel our self-reproach until we both 
despise and hate ourselves. But the trouble often re- 
mains, the weight on the conscience is often not removed, 
until the soul is brought to acknowledge its iniquity and 
to confess its transgressions unto the Lord. We cannot 
remove the dark cloud. Do what we will, writhe as we 
may, the consciousness of forgiveness can come only from 
the Lord. So long as the Psalmist "kept silence," he 



CONFESSION OF SIN 199 

found no relief. Only in confessing his sin unto the 
Lord, was his repentance perfected and his soul opened 
to receive pardon and peace. 

Confession is not needed to inform the Lord of our 
transgressions, or to induce Him to forgive us. The 
change is wrought not in God, but in ourselves. Our 
confessions react upon our own souls : they open our hearts 
to receive me?'cy from the Lord. The cloud and the 
misery are in us. God would unceasingly shine upon us 
and fill us with joy. The hindrances are in ourselves, 
and our conviction of sin, our humility, and our penitence 
bring us into a spiritual state in which we are made supple 
to the moulding of the Divine hand, submissive to the 
impulses of the Divine Will, receptive of the blessings of 
the Divine Love. 



PRAYER. 

O most gracious and merciful Lord Jesus Christ, 
Thou dost desire to make all thy creatures pure and 
holy, and like unto Thyself. By thy Spirit Thou art 
continually striving within us, to lead us out of darkness 
into light, out of spiritual death into the reception of life 
from Thee. We know that if we confess our sins Thou 
art faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse 
us from all unrighteousness. O grant unto us a full and 
abiding confidence in thy loving-kindness and willingness 
to forgive. 

We acknowledge our sins unto Thee ; we would not hide 
our iniquities from Thee or from ourselves. We know 
that of ourselves we are altogether evil ; we have followed 



200 WORDS IN SEASON. 

too much the devices and desires of our own hearts, and 
have transgressed against thy holy laws. More especially 
would we lament and confess before Thee our most be- 
setting sin, the evil tempers to which we are most prone, 
the weaknesses into which we are most easily betrayed. 
Deepen our conviction of sin. Help us to see how hate- 
ful a thing it is, how it hides thy face from us and hinders 
the reception of thy grace. Pardon, O Lord, what Thou 
hast seen amiss in us in time past. Enable us to hate and 
shun all that is displeasing in thy sight, so that no obsta- 
cle may exist to our communion and conjunction with 
Thee. Make us contrite of heart, mourning our sins and 
follies, and looking to Thee for help that we may walk 
more worthy of our high calling. Help us to endure 
temptation, as knowing that thus only can we be purified 
in heart and mind and life, and grow to love and think 
and do that which is pleasing and acceptable to Thee. 
So by thy strength becoming partakers of thy victory, 
and overcoming as Thou didst overcome, we shall sit 
down with Thee on thy throne for ever and ever. 
Amen. 



XXXIII. 




GOD IN CHRIST. 

"In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." — 
Colossians ii. 9. 

J N 1 John v. 7 we read: "There are three that 
bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, 
and the Holy Ghost : and these three are one." 
This is a concise summary of the doctrine of the Trinity 
in Unity j and well would it have been for the Church 
of Christ if the simplicity and comprehensiveness of this 
summary had commended it to Christians as a sufficient 
confession of faith in this cardinal truth of their religion. 

As God is one and indivisible, so the whole of the 
Divine Trinity — the Father, the Word, and the Holy 
Ghost — God in his infinite fullness of Love, Wisdom, and 
Power — dwells bodily in Christ. Thus we read, " The 
Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." John 
xiv. 10. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among 
us." John i. 14. " God giveth not the Spirit by measure 
unto Him." John iii. 34. 

Hence it follows that Jesus Christ our Lord is the One 
living and true God, manifest in human form — "For as 
the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and 
man is one Christ." To approach God, therefore, we 
must approach Him through the only-begotten Son (Luke 

201 



202 WORDS IN SEASON. 

i. 35), the human medium in whom He dwells and in 
whom He is made manifest. This is the true doctrine 
of Mediation, as expressed by the text: " There is one 
God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man 
Christ Jesus." 1 Tim. ii. 5? There is now no God out 
of Christ; and he who does not come to God by Him, 
does not approach God at all ; as Christ Himself says, 
"I am the way, the truth, and the life: no one corneth 
unto the Father but by me." John xiv. 6. We truly 
approach God only when we approach his holiest Temple 
— the glorified Humanity of Christ. 

We have a strong confirmation of this truth in the 
fact that Christ is represented in Scripture as the medium 
of all Divine influences to men, which must needs be if 
the human nature is now the eternal embodiment of the 
Divine. Thus we read: "Of his fullness have all we 
received" (John i. 16); "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my 
name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified 
in the Son" (John xiv. 13); "When the Comforter is 
come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even 
the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, 
He shall testify of me" (John xv. 26); "Unto every 
one of us is given grace, according to the measure of 
the gift of Christ" Eph. iv. 7. Hence too He is 
called "The Bread of life" (John vi. 35); "The Light 
of the world" (John viii. 15); "The head over all 
things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of 
Him that filleth all in all." Eph. i. 22, 23. 

For the same reason the Church is exhorted to look to 
the Lord Jesus as its constant helper, instructor, supporter, 
comforter, and guide. In promising to his people the 



GOD IN CHRIST. 203 

gift of the Holy Spirit, He promised to them his own 
presence — "I will not leave you comfortless, I will come 
to you" (John xiv. 18); " Where two or three are 
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst 
of them" (Matt, xviii. 20) ; "Lo, I am with you alway, 
even unto the end of the world." Matt, xxviii. 20. 

Whenever, therefore, we would think of God, we should 
think of Him in the glorified Person of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ. This will give definiteness to our 
ideas of Him. Many think of God as of an infinitely 
diffused substance without form. Thus the thought of 
God is dissipated, like the sight of the eye when one 
looks upon the boundless universe. All this vagueness 
is removed when we think of God as a Divine Man 
infinite in Love, Wisdom, and Power, and present by 
his life-giving effluence in all creatures and all things. 
The deep desire of every earnest soul is to know God — 
" Show us the Father and it sufficeth us. " And to the 
soul so yearning to know God, the Saviour answers, as 
He answered Philip : " Have I been so long time with 
you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that 
hath seen me hath seen the Father." John xiv. 8, 9. 
The attempt to think of God as He is in the infinite 
abysses of his own nature, must ever be futile. The 
mind becomes confused in the effort to soar so far above 
the necessary limitations of human thought. But in Jesus, 
" God manifest in the flesh," we have a revelation of God 
exactly suited to our wants. The vagueness of belief 
in God, which prior to the incarnation was inevitable, 
is now abolished in Christ Jesus our Lord. " God in 
Christ " is so brought down to our spiritual state that He 



204 WORDS IN SEASON. 

can be a subject of rational thought, and an object of 
rational love. The incarnation was such an accommoda- 
tion of God to our condition as to bring Him within the 
limitations of human thought and affection. It was the 
most wonderful of all Divine accommodations to man's 
state. To know Christ is to know God, and to love 
Christ is to love God ; not God afar off in the infinitude 
of his Divine nature, incomprehensible by human thought ; 
not God as an abstract idea taking shape in the necessary 
anthropomorphism of our own minds ; but God incarnate 
— " Immanuel, God with us." 

To angels in heaven as well as to men on earth, God, 
who in Himself is invisible, is manifested in Christ. They 
think of God and see Him as a Divine Man, who created 
them in his own image and likeness, and who Himself 
descended into the natural and material plane of his crea- 
tion, and was manifest in the flesh. Though far exalted 
above men in the degree of their capacity of seeing and 
knowing God, yet the angels are no more than finite. 
For God to be seen and known of them, the Infinite must 
descend and clothe Himself with the semblance of finite- 
ness ; the Invisible must put on visibility ; the Ineffable 
must accommodate Himself to their apprehensions. To 
them Jesus Christ, visible in his glorified Humanity, is the 
fullest revelation of God ; He is their Lord as well as ours, 
the object of their worship and service ; and He is the 
medium to them as well as to us of light and life and joy. 
Hence we read: "Let all the angels of God worship 
Him." Heb. i. 6. "Far above all principality, and 
power, and might, and dominion, and every name that 
is named, not only in this world, but also in that which 



GOD IN CHRIST. 205 

is to come." Eph. i. 21. "God also hath highly ex- 
alted Him, and given Him a name which is above every 
name : that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 
of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under 
the earth ; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus 
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Phil. 
ii. 9— 11. " Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right 
hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being 
made subject unto Him." 1 Peter hi. 22. So too we 
read that Jesus " ascended up far above all heavens, that 
He might fill all things" (Eph. iv. 10), angels in heaven 
as well as men below. They, with us, are made perfect 
in Christ; and they as well as we, may say, "Of his 
fullness have all we received, and grace for grace." 



PRAYER. 

Ever- adorable and thrice holy Lord God Almighty, 
who in the fullness of thine infinite Love, Wisdom, and 
Power, dwellest bodily in thy glorified Humanity — we 
would reverently bow down and worship Thee. We can- 
not ascend to the contemplation of Thee as Thou art in 
thine absolute perfection, in thine infinite majesty ; but we 
rejoice that Thou hast revealed Thyself to us in man's 
nature, and that in the face of Jesus we may behold thy 
glory. 

We approach Thee in thine only-begotten Son, who 
is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We ask Thee in 
thine own highest name, Jesus Christ, for all the bless- 
ings that we need — that we may be comforted by thy 

18 



206 WORDS IN SEASON. 

presence, ilumined by thy light, strengthened by thy 
grace, fed by the living bread which cometh down from 
heaven, refreshed by the water of life. Enable us so to 
contemplate thy holy nature, that our hearts and under- 
standings may be united in thy fear, while our words and 
deeds bear testimony that we hallow thy holy name in 
sincerity and truth. May we thus adorn thy doctrine, O 
God our Saviour, in all things, and be found in thy sight 
full of charity, mercy, and good fruits. 

Help us to realize a blessed communion with thy saints 
above ; to be sharers in their joys, to feel .thy presence 
with us even as they feel, and to delight as they do in the 
knowledge and love of Thee. For Thou Lord Jesus, 
whose name alone is Jehovah, art not only the most high 
over all the earth, but thy glory is above the heavens. 
Therefore with angels and archangels and with all the 
company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious 
name; evermore praising Thee and saying, "Holy, holy, 
holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full 
of thy glory : Glory be to Thee, O Lord Most High ! ' ' 
Amen. 



XXXIV. 



PR A YER. 

" The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that 
call upon Him in truth." — Psalm cxlv. 18. 




RUE prayer, in the sense of petition or supplica- 
tion, is threefold. It consists in — a genuine 
B desire of the soul for a certain object ; the con- 
sciousness of this desire as a thought of the mind ; and 
the expression of this desire and of this thought in the 
form of words. 

Our prayers are real only so far as they truly express 
the earnest desires of the heart ; and only so far as they 
are real can they possibly be of use. Of the hypocritical 
Pharisees, whose prayers were mere lip-service, the Lord 
complains, "This people draweth nigh unto me with their 
mouth, and honoreth me with their lips ; but their heart 
is far from me." Matt. xv. 8. Sincerity is the very soul 
of prayer, without which it is a dead service dishonoring 
to the Lord and hurtful to ourselves. 

Prayer is not needed to inform the omniscient Lord of 
our wants; "for your Father knoweth what things ye 
have need of before ye ask Him." Matt. v. 8. Neither 
can it avail to change the purpose of the All-wise, or to 
make the All-loving more gracious and willing to bless 

207 



208 WORDS IN SEASON. 

than He was before. But though prayer does not effect 
any change in the Lord, yet it does effect a most import- 
ant change in man. In true prayer the face of man's 
spirit is turned toward the Lord, and the mind and heart 
of the petitioner are opened to receive from the Lord the 
blessings adapted to his state. 

Besides making us receptive of grace, which the Lord 
is ever willing to bestow, there is in prayer itself a reflex 
benefit. We are the better for our prayers, not only 
through them as a means of receiving blessings from the 
Lord, but by them on account of their own influence upon 
ourselves. This benefit is twofold. First : because true 
prayer reacts upon ourselves in confirming and increasing 
those spiritual graces which are exercised in prayer and 
find expression in its words. Second : because in true 
prayer we hold communion with God, and the effect of 
such communion is to conform us to the Divine image. 
It is an invariable principle operating with the certainty 
of cause and effect, that man by worshiping becomes 
assimilated to the object of his worship. Hence in 
loving and habitual communion with the Lord in his 
true character, "we all with open face beholding as in a 
glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same 
image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the 
Lord." 2 Cor. iii. 18. 

Prayerful feelings without the habit of praying, are not 
enough. The true spirit of prayer prompts to acts of 
prayer ; and this spirit will be checked and will be in 
danger of passing away unless it finds expression and 
relief in words. We are told to "pray without ceasing," 
that is, to maintain a state of prayerfulness ; and the only 



PR A YER. 209 

sure way of attaining to this as an abiding state, is by 
cultivating the habit of prayer. This indeed is one of the 
reflex benefits of prayer — that when the utterance of prayer 
is prompted by the spirit of prayer, it has a direct tend- 
ency to increase its own cause. 

Prayer will be ineffectual without practice — unless 
accompanied by our own endeavors to realize the bless- 
ings for which we pray. By prayer we seek from the 
Lord grace to overcome falsity and evil, and to grow in 
knowledge and in goodness. It is a means of grace, and 
must not be mistaken for the end. Of what use is it to 
pray for patience, if we do not try to curb our impatience ? 
to pray for purity, if we continue to indulge in unclean- 
ness? to pray for charity, if we foster unkindness and 
neglect to do charitable deeds ? Prayer for Christian 
graces will be ineffectual, unless at the same time we resist 
all evil as sin against the Lord. While a man from this 
motive strives against evil, prayer is a mighty and most 
efficacious means of attaining Divine help. It induces 
such spiritual states upon the soul, that the Lord can 
effectually work within it to enable it to will and to do 
that which is pleasing in his sight. It brings the soul 
into a state of humility, of self-distrust, of constant look- 
ing to the Lord for help and guidance — the very states into 
which the Divine Spirit can enter and in which it can 
abide. 

Prayer should be chiefly for spiritual blessings. In re- 
gard to our worldly circumstances, we should seek to cul- 
tivate patience and perfect resignation to the Lord's will. 
There must ever be danger of fostering selfish desires in 
praying for worldly goods and worldly prosperity. In 
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2IO WORDS IN SEASON. 

the model prayer which the Lord has taught us, the only 
petition which in the literal sense refers to worldly goods 
is, " Give us this day our daily bread." If the souls of 
men were altogether right in the sight of God, we may 
assuredly believe it would be well with their bodies too. 
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteous- 
ness ; and all these things shall be added unto you. ' ' 
Matt. vi. $$. 

Prayer should not be for personal blessings only, but 
we should pray for others as well as for ourselves. In what 
way or by what means our intercessions are made avail- 
able, we may not see. But of this we may be sure — that 
as the Lord has enjoined upon us this duty, so there must 
be efficacy in our prayers for others, not to conciliate 
the Divine favor, but to bring them in some way, 
according to the laws of Divine order, within the 
sphere of influences that may do them good. And with 
prayer for others must be joined willingness and effort on 
our part to do them good, and thus, as far as in us lies, 
to give effect to our intercessions in their behalf. 

Lastly, all prayer should be addressed to ' ' God in 
Christ" — to the Divine Father in the Person of his 
only-begotten Son. Luke i. 35. Hence our Lord prom- 
ised to his disciples: "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my 
name, that will I do ; that the Father may be glorified in 
the Son." John xiv. 13. The meaning of this is, not 
that we should pray to the Father to bless us for Christ's 
sake, but that we should pray to the Father in the Son, 
addressing our prayers directly to Jesus Christ our Lord, 
who is Himself " the Mighty God, the Everlasting 
Father," in a glorified human form. Thus St. Paul 



PRATER. 211 

writes to the Corinthians as those "that are sanctified in 
Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every 
place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord." i Cor. 
i. 2. Jesus Christ is Jehovah manifested, the very Form 
of the Divine Essence, the very Image of the Invisible. 
To come to Jesus Christ, then, is to come to God ; and 
to ask the Father in the name of Jesus Christ, means to 
address our prayers immediately to the latter, and thus 
mediately to the Father, who dwells in and is one with 
Him. 



PRAYER. 

O Mighty God and Everlasting Father, who in thy 
Divine Humanity art named Jesus Christ, we praise 
Thee for all thy mercies, but especially for the revelation 
of Thyself in the gospel as Immanuel, God with us. Thou 
art the only Source and bountiful Giver of all good ; in 
Thee dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, 
and of thy fullness we may all receive. 

Let a sense of thy Divine majesty keep us from the 
great sin of praying to Thee with our lips only, while our 
hearts are far from Thee. Give to us those inmost 
desires which are the very life of prayer, so that deeply 
conscious of our need, and humbly trusting in thy 
willingness and power, we may pray to Thee in sincerity 
and truth. Thou knowest what things we have need of 
before we ask, and Thou art ever more ready to give 
than we are to receive. Thou needest not that we should 
instruct thy wisdom or conciliate thy favor. But for our 
sakes Thou dost require us to pray to Thee — to preserve 



212 WORDS IN SEASON. 

and increase in us a constant sense of our dependence 
upon Thee, and to open our souls to receive out of thy 
fullness the blessings adapted to our state. Give us 
grace so to ask that we may receive, so to seek that we 
may find, so to knock that it may be opened to us. 

Enable us ever to bear in mind that our own endeavors 
must be conjoined with prayer; that those who pray for 
heavenly light must seek it in thy holy Word ; that those 
who pray to be redeemed from all iniquity must shun all 
evil as sin against Thee ; that those who pray for holi- 
ness must be unwearied in well-doing and diligent in all 
the means of grace ; that those who pray for others must 
strive to do them good. 

Thus, coming habitually to thy throne of grace and 
ever striving to do thy will, may we realize by happy ex- 
perience that Thou art nigh unto all them that call upon 
Thee, to all that call upon Thee in truth. And to 
Thee, O blessed Lord Jesus, be the glory and the praise 
for ever and ever. Amen. 



XXXV. 

GENUINE AND APPARENT TRUTHS.' 

" I am the Lord, I change not ; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not 
consumed." — Malachi iii. 6. 



AREFUL readers of the Bible cannot fail to have 
observed in it seemingly conflicting statements 
in regard to the moral character of God. So 
also its statements in regard to matters of natural science, 
appear to confirm the popular errors entertained on such 
subjects at the time in which the Scriptures were written. 
These apparent discrepancies have furnished arguments to 
the infidel and occasioned trouble and perplexity to many 
sincere inquirers, who have been unable to reconcile their 
existence with the claims of the Bible as a revelation of 
Divine Truth. 

There are two classes of statements in the letter of the 
Word — those in which the truth is openly and absolutely 
expressed ; and those which convey the truth, not as it is 
absolutely, but as it appears to the minds of men in a low 
moral and intellectual state. We may conveniently style 
the former genuine and the latter apparent truths. The 
necessity and advantage of this distinction will be seen in 
applying it to the descriptions in the Word of the moral 
character of God. Thus we read: "I am the Lord, I 
change not" (Mai. iii. 6); and yet "the Lord turned 



214 WORDS IN SEASON. 

from the fierceness of his anger" (Josh. vii. 26); "He is 
not a man that He should repent" (1 Sam. xv. 29); and 
yet "it repented the Lord that He had made man" (Gen. 
vi. 6); "God is love" (1 John iv. 8); and yet "the 
wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth" (Ps. 
xi. 5) ; " Fury is not in me" (Isa. xxvii. 4); and yet "the 
Lord revengeth and is furious." Nah. i. 2. 

It is evident that these two classes of statements cannot 
be in the same manner true. We are compelled to dis- 
tinguish between them ; to accept the first class as descrip- 
tions of the moral character of the Deity as it actually is, 
and to accept the second class as descriptions accommo- 
dated to the lowest natural and sensuous perceptions of 
mankind. That is, the first class of statements expresses 
the genuine truth, and the second class the apparent 
truth. 

The purpose of the existence in the Bible of apparent 
truths in relation to God, is clear — viz., to reach minds in 
a low moral and intellectual condition, who can think of 
God in no other way. Although the understanding may 
be elevated above the will, so that we can see the excellence 
we have not realized in ourselves, yet all men, more or 
less, picture to themselves a God in their own image ; so 
that in this sense it is true : " With the merciful Thou wilt 
shew Thyself merciful ; with an upright man Thou wilt 
shew Thyself upright ; with the pure Thou wilt show Thy- 
self pure ; and with the froward Thou wilt show Thyself 
froward." Ps. xviii. 25, 26. Only so far as the Divine 
characteristics are revealed in us can they be spiritually 
discerned. While others may have a speculative know- 
ledge of the Divine perfections, only the loving can really 



GENUINE AND APPARENT TRUTHS. 215 

know God in his Divine love, only the wise can know 
Him in his Divine wisdom, only the holy can know Him 
in his Divine holiness. As men grow up into the Divine 
image and likeness, in the same proportion their percep- 
tions of the Divine nature deepen and become exalted. 
To the wicked God appears what He really is not — terri- 
ble, jealous, full of wrath ; while to the good He appears 
what He really is — altogether loving, gracious, full of 
compassion, the Divine Father, whose love is deeper and 
more tender than that of a woman for her first-born. 
Being born again, they see the kingdom of God ; being 
pure in heart, they see God ; being lifted into heavenly 
light, they recognize their Father in heaven. By accom- 
modating the verbal revelation of Himself to the states 
and capacities of men, God has provided a means by 
which all may be reached, and by which all may be en- 
abled to believe. The lower view will give place to the 
higher as men, through faithfulness to the light they have, 
become more and more receptive of the higher. 

In the book of nature as well as of revelation, we are com- 
pelled to distinguish between genuine and apparent truths ; 
and in the sun, which is a symbol of the Lord, we have a 
very close analogy strikingly illustrative of the subject 
before us. The sun, which is gloriously refulgent in an 
unclouded sky, appears red and lowering when obscured 
by fog ; but there is no change in the sun itself. It is 
thus with the unchangeable God under the different 
aspects in which He appears to man. Seen through the 
clear spiritual atmosphere of love and truth, God is love, 
immutable love ; seen through the fog and mist of evil, 
He appears to be angry, wrathful, at enmity with man. 



216 WORDS IN SEASON. 

When man changes in his spiritual condition, and from 
his changed condition thinks of the Lord, it seems to him 
as though the Lord had changed. To conclude from 
appearances that the Lord changes, is as great a fallacy 
as to conclude from appearances that the sun moves 
round the earth. The absolute truth is that the sun in 
respect to the earth is stationary ; the sun only appears to 
move, and the real change is in the earth itself which 
seems to be so immovable. The sun changes not ; the 
Lord changes not. The sun seems to change, waxing 
and waning in brightness and in heat; now coming 
nearer, then retiring farther from us; now effulgent in 
the noontide, then altogether gone in the obscurity of 
night. God, in like manner, seems to change ; now 
shedding forth light and love, then frowning and angry ; 
now very near to our souls, then far removed from us ; 
now causing the soul's noontide of love and glory, then 
leaving the soul to mourn his absence during its dark 
cold night. The change of the earth's place and position 
is the real cause of the apparent changes of the sun ; and 
variation in man's spiritual condition is the real cause of 
changes which seem to take place in God. God is un- 
changeable ; the changes take place in us. He has hung 
his unchanging image in the natural firmament to be an 
unalterable witness to his universal operation, to be the 
very analogue of the light and heat, the truth and good- 
ness which He continually pours out on all mankind. 
The appearance of change in the sun does no injury to 
him who believes that the appearance is a reality. The 
time may come when the reality will be known and the 
appearance will be explained. So the apparent truths of 



GENUINE AND APPARENT TRUTHS. 217 

the Bible in relation to God, if the highest of which the 
mind is capable, do no injury to him who believes them. 
They only become hurtful when he who has once be- 
lieved them, is thereby confirmed in his rejection of the 
higher truths. 

The Bible thus contains two classes of literal statements 
concerning God, each true in respect to the perceptions 
of different classes of men * one class of statements ex- 
pressing apparent truths in terms accommodated to the 
lowest and most sensuous perceptions of mankind; the 
other class expressing genuine truths in terms adapted to 
those who are receptive of higher views. But in making 
this distinction between apparent and genuine truths, it 
must be borne in mind that even our highest and clearest 
views of the Divine Nature are after all only approxima- 
tions to the truth. We cannot see God in his unveiled 
glory, in the infinitude of his Divine perfections ; we can 
see Him only under an aspect limited to our perceptions, 
and in light adapted to our state. Though the difference 
between man's highest and lowest conceptions of God 
may be immense, yet both alike fall infinitely short of 
the reality of God. Still, the higher our view the more 
worthy it is of God, and the more helpful to our own 
souls. The truth concerning God, in proportion to its 
dignity and accuracy, opens the mind to the operation of 
God. God works in the angels more effectually than in 
us; for their perception of Him is higher and clearer 
than ours. He has so accommodated his revelation of 
Himself as to bring it within the range of every mind, 
so that the childlike may have a childlike faith, the ignor- 
ant a limited and simple faith, the wise a larger and more 

19 



2l8 WORDS IN SEASON. 

enlightened faith in God. Thus all can believe, and 
according to their faith can receive the Divine operation 
into their souls, transforming them from the image of the 
earthly, into the image of the heavenly, until they "all 
come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of 
the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of 
the stature of the fullness of Christ." Eph. iv. 13. 



PRAYER. 

Infinite and Eternal Lord God Almighty, it hath 
pleased Thee to accommodate the revelation of Thyself 
to the states and capacities of men, and we praise and 
magnify thy mercy in thus condescending to our need. 

We beseech Thee reveal Thyself in us, that we may 
be able to see Thee in heavenly light. Thou art the 
Eternal Jehovah, the same yesterday, to-day and for 
ever. But though Thou art unchangeable in thine own 
nature, yet Thou art variously seen by thy creatures, 
according as they are related to Thee by likeness, or 
alienated from Thee by sin. Renew us in thy Divine 
image and likeness, so that being loving we may know 
Thee in thy Divine love, being wise we may know Thee 
in thy Divine wisdom, being holy we may know Thee in 
thy Divine holiness. 

O Thou Sun of Righteousness, who dost arise with heal- 
ing in thy beams unto all who fear thy name, help us 
ever to bear in mind that ' ' the fear of the Lord is to 
hate evil;" and that those only who thus fear Thee can 
by interior perception see Thee as Thou art. Remove 



GENUINE AND APPARENT TRUTHS. 219 

from us those clouds of falsity and evil which hide thy 
face from us, intercepting the light of thy Divine truth 
and the warmth of thy Divine love, and making us 
barren and unfruitful in the true knowledge of Thee 
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Make us faithful 
to the light we have, that we may learn to know Thee 
better, to love Thee more truly, and to serve Thee with 
greater fidelity all our days. Thus may we grow in 
grace and in the knowledge of Thee until we attain 
finally to that blessed state when we shall see Thee no 
longer as through a glass darkly, but face to face ; when 
we shall be with Thee where Thou art and behold thy 
glory. Amen. 




XXXVI . 



HARMONY OF THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES. 




" A just God and Saviour." — Isaiah xlv. 21. 

TRUE knowledge of God is the most import- 
ant, as it is the highest, of all knowledge. He 
who truly knows God is wise, whatever know- 
ledge else he lacks ; he who knows not God is ignorant, 
whatever else he knows. As our idea of God enters into 
all the doctrines we believe, so error or ignorance in this 
fundamental of all faith, darkens our perceptions of every 
other truth. Besides, man becomes assimilated to the 
object of his worship. What he worships he must rev- 
erence, and what he reverences he must imitate. He can 
himself rise no higher than his highest known standard 
of excellence, which is the idea he entertains of God. 
If his conceptions of the Divine attributes be degraded, 
he will inevitably sink to the same level of degradation. 
Unworthy ideas concerning God thus react injuriously 
on a man's own character. 

There is no subject on which men are more liable to 
err, than in their conceptions of the nature of the Divine 
Justice. The ordinary notion of justice is that of retri- 
bution ; the bestowal of so much reward for so much 
service ; the infliction of so much punishment for so 
much sin. Even the notion of justice rewarding has be- 

220 



HARMON T OF GOD'S ATTRIBUTES. 221 

come somewhat obscured, by reason of the greater 
prominence which is given to the associated idea of 
justice punishing. The retributions of justice are thus 
commonly thought of as being almost exclusively penal 
— so much pain for so much transgression. Men transfer 
this idea, with the added notion of infinity, to their con- 
ception of the justice of God, and thence infer that the 
Divine justice is infinite, eternal, inexorable vindictive- 
ness. Hence it has come to be believed that salvation 
is altogether of the Divine Mercy, and condemnation 
altogether of the Divine Justice. Thus there has grown 
up in the minds of many persons a habit of regarding 
these two Divine attributes, Justice and Mercy, as in 
themselves antagonistic and irreconcilable; and hence 
the supposed necessity of a plan of salvation so contrived 
as at once to satisfy the Divine Justice and to justify the 
Divine Mercy in behalf of those who are delivered from 
the wrath to come. 

One thing, however, is certain — that no notion of 
Divine Justice can be true which does not fully harmo- 
nize with what we know of the other attributes of God. 
The reality of the Divine Unity is at once destroyed if 
we conceive that any two attributes of God are in them- 
selves irreconcilable. There can be no infinite unity 
in a nature which at the same time embodies or contains 
two infinite contraries. God would be an infinite self- 
contradiction if two irreconcilable infinite attributes 
dwelt in Him. It must, therefore, be an error to suppose 
that the Divine Justice conflicts with the Divine Mercy, 
or that what satisfies one does not satisfy the other. 
There 'is no such contrariety in God ; therefore any 
19* 



222 WORDS IN SEASON. 

definition given to either his Justice or his Mercy which 
shows them to be essentially irreconcilable, must be 
incorrect. 

Justice in God is the right- doing of Infinite Love ; it is 
the Love of God operating according to the i7nmutable 
laws of his Divine order. His Love desires, his Wisdom 
contrives, and his Power executes nothing but what is 
for the real welfare of his creatures. It is therefore im- 
possible that his Mercy could incline Him to do what 
his Justice forbids, or that any contrivance should be 
needed to reconcile these two attributes of his Divine 
nature. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do 
right ?" Yes. And for the reason that He is infinite in 
Love and Wisdom as well as infinite in Power ; and be- 
cause these are the trinity of essentials in his Divine unity, 
which comprise all that He is in Himself and all that He 
is to us. The only rational and sure basis of confidence 
in God, is belief in the absolute harmony of the Divine 
attributes ; that He is ever mercifully just and justly 
merciful toward the children of men. Mercy ever de- 
sires and strives to save every human being, but only by 
a salvation which is in accordance with the immutable 
laws of Divine order, the end of which is the highest 
welfare of the individual and of the universe. The man- 
ifestation of the Divine love toward mankind must 
necessarily follow certain definite and immutable prin- 
ciples. These definite and immutable principles accord- 
ing to which God operates in human souls are the laws 
of Divine Justice. One of these laws is the preservation 
in every man of the power of free determination in 
regard to spiritual things ; for if man does not freely 



HARMONY OF GOD'S ATTRIBUTES. 223 

receive the Divine blessings, they cannot be appropriated 
or really become his. God strives to enter into every 
soul, to fill man's affectional nature with love, his in- 
tellectual nature with wisdom, and his activities with 
new powers of doing good and finding delight therein. 
To the extent that a man is willing for God thus to come 
in, He enters ; and to that extent, according to the just 
laws of Divine operation, He blesses the man. If a 
man is not willing for God thus to come in, God's love, 
wisdom and power cannot and do not enter into that 
man, and this too according to the just laws of Divine 
operation ; and the state of that man is hell. Hence in 
God justice is the rule of mercy, the rule according to 
which it ever operates; so that we may say with the 
Psalmist, "Unto Thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy; for 
Thou renderest to every man according to his work. ' ' 
Ps. lxii. 12. 

There is no contradiction to the harmony of the 
Divine attributes in the fact that Divine Justice provides 
for the punishment of sin. It is the highest mercy to 
punish the sinner whom nothing but punishment could 
restrain from wickedness. The more certainly that 
wickedness is disorder and that disorder is productive 
of misery, the more certainly that obedience is order and 
that order is productive of happiness — the more certainly 
true it is that mercy must seem cruel to be kind. 
Punishment is not an end of itself; it is but a means to 
an end ; and that end is altogether merciful. Punish- 
ment which is merely vindictive and without merciful ends 
in view, has no place in the Divine government. 

Even the punishments of hell are no exception to 



224 WORDS IN SEASON. 

the operation of the Divine Mercy. The notion of hell 
as a place of arbitrary punishment eternally inflicted by 
an implacable Deity for past acts of wickedness com- 
mitted during the sinner's life on earth — however ap- 
parently supported by the letter of Scripture — is utterly 
untenable. There is indeed punishment in hell, but it 
is such punishment for present acts of wickedness as is 
repressive and restraining only, and thus altogether mer- 
ciful. God sends no one to hell ; but all who go down 
to that world of death, go there of their own choice, 
drawn to their associates in evil by the attraction of their 
ruling loves. Those passages of Scripture which, in the 
literal sense, seem to assert that God commands the 
wicked to be cast into outer darkness and the torment- 
ing flame, are accommodations of language to the natural 
ideas of men. In so far as it is a law of Divine order 
that in the other world, as indeed in this, men shall 
desire and strive to be with their like, and shall seek for 
and prefer to abide with such — in that sense God com- 
mands the consequence in instituting the law. But the 
law is merciful, both in its purpose and in its operation ; 
for by virtue of this law all the associations of heaven 
are formed ; and even in the associations of hell the lost 
spirit is less miserable than he would be in heaven. The 
suffering of the infernals is a dread reality, the necessary 
consequence of their disorderly and evil state : but the 
Divine mercy is present even in hell, operating through 
the inevitable law by which evil punishes itself, to restrain 
them from the excess of evil which would aggravate 
their misery. Fear of punishment is the only restraining 
motive in beings confirmed in evil, and the Divine mercy 



HARMONY OF GOD'S ATTRIBUTES. 225 

ever seeking to limit the raging of their lusts, and thus to 
save them from increase of suffering, uses that motive as 
the only means to this beneficent end. 



PRAYER. 



Almighty and everlasting God who art good to all 
and whose tender mercies are over all Thy works ; who, 
because Thou art merciful, wilt render unto every man 
according to his deeds ; who by thy Divine operation 
art ever seeking to impart to every man the highest good 
he is able to receive ; who dost reign in heaven to in- 
fill the angels with the joy and peace of thy Love and 
Wisdom ; and who dost rule even in hell, to restrain the 
lost from rushing into direr evils and bringing on them- 
selves direr anguish — we adore Thee in the harmony of 
thy Divine attributes as a just God and a Saviour, ever 
mercifully just and justly merciful toward the children 
of men. 

We thank Thee for that motive of love by which Thou 
dost draw us willingly unto Thee. We thank Thee also 
for the motive of fear by which in times past Thou hast 
restrained us from the commission of sin, and thus pre- 
served us from the penalty of sin. By fear and love 
Thou hast led us hitherto, and in both Thou hast shown 
Thyself to be altogether just and merciful, wise and 
good. Henceforth lead us by the mighty cords of love 
— perfect love which casteth out fear. Enable us to see 
the true nature of evil and to discern thy mercy in those 
just laws of Divine order by which evil is permitted to 
P 



226 WORDS IN SEASON. 

work out its terrible consequences of misery and anguish 
in those that are enslaved thereby. Incline our hearts to 
shun all evil because it is a sin against Thee, and to do 
that which Thou wouldst have us do because it is pleasing 
in thy sight. Thus may we fight the good fight of faith, 
till having been more than conquerors through Thee who 
hast loved us, we shall be exalted to thy kingdom above, 
where we shall sing the song of Moses, the servant of 
God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, " Great and 
marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and 
true are thy ways Thou King of saints." Amen. 





XXXVII. 

JUDGMENT AFTER DEATH. 

" It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judg- 
ment." — Hebrews ix. 27. 



jlUCH of the fear with which death is commonly 
regarded, results from the absence of definite 
or clear views of what comes after death. It is 
viewed like stepping out into the darkness ; passing from 
the known to the unknown ; the breaking up of associa- 
tions and ties with which we are familiar, and many of 
which we have cherished, and the entrance into a condi- 
tion of life appalling from its vagueness. Yet from such 
doubt and uncertainty the Word of God was intended to 
deliver us. By supplying to us many suggestive intima- 
tions, it at once justifies our desire for information and 
directs our investigations. 

It is evidently a misapprehension to suppose that all 
men pass immediately by death either to heaven or to 
hell. In spiritual conjunction with this earth is an inter- 
mediate state, into which the soul just separated from the 
body first enters, and there for a while remains until its 
final entrance into a heavenly or an infernal state. This 
intermediate state is called " Sheol" in the Old Testa- 
ment, and "Hades" in the New. Although both these 



228 WORDS IN SEASON. 

terms have been occasionally translated "Hell," yet a 
thoughtful consideration of the passages ■ in which they 
occur will show that the right meaning to be attached to 
both is — "the place of the departed." This intermediate 
state may very properly be designated the "world of 
spirits," to distinguish it from "Heaven" where the 
angels dwell, and from "Hell" where the infernals 
abide. Into this world of spirits all enter immediately 
upon the separation of those mysterious links which bind 
the spirit to its earthly tabernacle. In this world of 
spirits the judgment takes place ; and from this interme- 
diate state the soul that has been judged proceeds either 
to heaven or to hell, according to its confirmation in 
good or evil resulting from its life on earth. 

The judgment after death is not merely a judicial act 
by which every one is at once assigned his final abode, 
but it is a process of exploration and development by 
which the exteriors of the spirit are gradually brought 
into agreement with its interiors ; by which the genuine 
internal character is brought forth to view ; until the 
Lord's words are fully verified in each individual case : 
" There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; 
neither hid that shall not be known." Luke xii. 2. The 
design of the judgment is thus to bring the externals of 
human character into exact conformity or correspondence 
with the inner life \ to abolish all artificial, assumed, and 
merely apparent distinctions among men ; and to establish 
on the basis of internal and spiritual realities the condi- 
tions under which they will thenceforth exist, and the 
associates with whom they will thenceforth consort. 

The Lord is truly the Author of this judgment ; God is 



JUDGMENT AFTER DEATH. 229 

" the Judge of all." The means by which this judgment 
is effected, is an influx into the soul of the light of Divine 
Truth from the Lord, impelling every one to think, speak, 
and act under the influence of his ruling love, and thus re- 
vealing both to himself and others the true quality of his 
life. In this world every man is able more or less to conceal 
his real character, and in his words and actions to assume 
an exterior conformable to the laws of social order by 
which society is governed and preserved. The power 
of hiding from others our interior thoughts and feelings 
during our probation here, is a merciful arrangement of 
Divine Providence ; for it not only enables us to form a 
basis of natural goodness on which may be built the spir- 
itual superstructure of a heavenly character, but it like- 
wise permits the associations of this life to proceed in an 
external way of peace which would otherwise be impossi- 
ble. If the light of Divine Truth from the Lord so shone 
into the minds of men in this world as to impel every 
one by word and deed to disclose his inner thoughts and 
feelings to his fellow-men, abolishing thereby all those 
merely external restraints, courtesies, and attachments 
which now subsist, society would be dislocated. A new 
distribution of mankind would immediately ensue ; those 
only who resembled each other in internal character 
would associate; the good would have fellowship only 
with the good, and the evil only with the evil. In such 
case, instead of being as now a mixed state — a sort of 
common ground or mutual meeting-place where both the 
good and the evil can come into contact and maintain 
social and amicable intercourse with each other, the world 
would become a theatre where all the good were assem- 
20 



230 WORDS IN SEASON. 

bled in one place — a heaven ; and all the wicked in an- 
other place — a hell. 

Just such a revelation of internal character, followed 
by just such a separation between the good and the evil, 
and effected by an influx into the soul of the light of 
Divine Truth from the Lord, takes place after death in 
that intermediate state which has been designated "the 
world of spirits." The external restraints by which in 
this life evil actions are repressed and order is outwardly 
maintained, there cease to act ; and each soul stands self- 
revealed, openly delighting in what it really loves, glory- 
ing in the graces of the Lord or glorying in its shame. 
The ruling love brought into activity assimilates all things 
to itself; and each soul gradually puts on an exterior 
which is the exact image of the inner man. 

The judgment after death being thus a development 
of the ruling love, which by a law of man's spiritual 
nature gradually rejects everything uncongenial with itself, 
may therefore properly be termed a process of vastation. 
It operates on the inwardly good by the removal of 
external forms of falsity and evil which the best of men 
carry with them into the spiritual world ; and it operates 
on the inwardly wicked by the removal of external forms 
of truth and goodness of which they were not entirely 
divested during their life on earth. Vastation effects no 
change in the radical character of the soul : it only un- 
covers that character, by stripping off the disguises by 
which it was concealed, or the imperfections by which it 
was obscured. When this process is complete, each soul 
by the unerring law of spiritual affinity is drawn of its 



JUDGMENT AFTER DEATH. 231 

own will to that society in heaven or in hell which agrees 
with the real quality of its life. 

This doctrine of the vastation of both the good and 
the evil in the world of spirits, must not be confounded 
with the Romish doctrine of purgatory, which teaches 
the efficacy of prayers for the dead and of saying masses 
for the repose and deliverance of their souls. Vastation 
is an orderly process conducted by Divine Wisdom agree- 
ably to the fixed laws of spiritual development; and 
there is no Scripture evidence to warrant the belief that 
by human mediation this process can be either alleviated 
or abridged. 



PRAYER. 

O Almighty Lord, who of thy great goodness hast 
placed us here that we may be prepared for thy heavenly 
kingdom, and who as the righteous Judge of all wilt 
search the heart and try the reins, to give to every man 
according to his ways and according to the fruit of his 
doings ; help us ever to bear in mind the solemn truth 
that "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after 
this the judgment." 

Knowing that now is the accepted time and that now 
is the day of salvation, may we finish the work Thou hast 
given us to do, before the night cometh in which no man 
can work. Examine us, O Lord, and prove us ; search 
us, and know our hearts ; try us, and know our thoughts ; 
and see if there be any wicked way in us ; and lead us in 
the way everlasting. Impressed by that word of Thine 
that "there is nothing covered that shall not be re- 



232 WORDS IN SEASON. 

vealed : neither hid that shall not be known" — may we 
take heed unto our ways. Purge out of us, good Lord, 
even in this world, as far as may be possible, all that thy 
truth condemns, that we may not be ashamed to stand be- 
fore Thee in judgment. To this end dispose and enable 
us to co-operate with thy mercy by shunning evil because 
it is sin against Thee, and doing good because it is well- 
pleasing in thy sight. Work within us by thy Spirit, that 
our hearts may delight in goodness, that our minds may 
be enlightened by thy truth, that our lives may be de- 
voted to thy service. So may we hope that when it shall 
please Thee to call us hence we may give up our account 
with joy, and hear those words of final salvation pro- 
lounced, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter 
thou into the joy of thy Lord." Grant this, O Lord, for 
thy great name and mercies' sake. Amen. 





XXXVIII. 

LOVE TO GOD AND THE NEIGHBOR. 

" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all 
thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great com- 
mandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy 
neighbor as thyself." — Matthew xxii. 37-39. 

j]T. JOHN the beloved Apostle says, "We love 
Him because He first loved us." 1 John iv. 9. 
Yet, love based chiefly on gratitude, though it 
may be necessary as a beginning, is not the full measure 
of the love we owe to God. Love to God, in its highest 
spiritual significance, is love to God for his Divine per- 
fections — the love of what God is. We are to love God, 
not merely for his benefits toward us, but for his own 
sake — for the sake of those loveworthy qualities which 
constitute his Divine character. Hence genuine love to 
God is the love of goodness and truth ; for these in their 
essence and origin are Himself. Whoever loves good- 
ness and truth loves God; and he loves God just in 
the degree and manner in which he loves goodness and 
truth. And the command to love God above all things 
is equivalent to this — that man's love for what is good 
and true must be the great controlling principle of his 
life. 

Love to God, in this sense, has a necessary tendency 
20 * 233 



234 WORDS IN SEASON. 

to conform us to the image of God. True love, based 
on appreciation of character, is imitative; it seeks to re- 
semble its object. Love is the most formative thing in 
the world, the most powerful in removing what is uncon- 
genial to its nature, and in assimilating all things to itself. 
By loving goodness we increase in goodness ; by loving 
wisdom we increase in wisdom ; by loving holiness we in- 
crease in holiness ; by loving these as qualities in God, we 
become like God. This shows man's duty to love God 
to be most important; for it is no other indeed than 
formative of his own character in the image and likeness 
of God. 

"This is the first and great commandment. And the 
second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 
thyself." These two loves are connected necessarily and 
not arbitrarily. We cannot truly love God without loving 
man ; and we cannot truly love man without having our 
hearts open to the love of God. Hence the Apostle 
says, " If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, 
he is a liar" (i John iv. 20); and, "If we love one an- 
other, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in 
us." 1 John iv. 12. 

But here an important distinction must be made. 
True love, in whomsoever it exists, and however vary- 
ing in its formal character, is essentially the same ; it is no 
other than Goal's own life of love received into human 
hearts. Man has no independent life, but is a spiritual 
organism every moment receptive of life from God, and 
not only of. life from God, but of the very life of God 
Himself. Man is loving only as he is animated by the 
Divine Love ; wise, only as he is informed by the Divine 



LOVE TO GOD AND THE NEIGHBOR. 235 

Wisdom \ holy, only as he is a partaker of the Divine 
Holiness. But although true love in itself is one and the 
same, yet in regard to its objects and the modes of its 
manifestation it admits of a twofold distinction — viz., as a 
love of complacency or delight, and as a love of benevolence 
or good-will. Of these two forms of love,, the love of 
benevolence is due to all mankind ; but the love of com- 
placency is by its very nature confined to the true disci- 
ples of the Lord. We not only wish them well, as we 
do the ungodly, but we see in them qualities which claim 
and deserve our affection and esteem. 

Now there can be no doubt that the love of compla- 
cency which we feel for the true children of God as such, 
springs necessarily from love to God. We love God be- 
cause He is worthy of our love, and we love our Christian 
brethren because they are like God ; or rather, so far as 
they are partakers of the Divine goodness, wisdom, and 
holiness, we love God in them. 

But it is equally true that the love of benevolence, which 
embraces all men without exception, springs necessarily 
from love to God. For love to God- not only makes us 
like God, and therefore, as He is, loving unto every 
man ; but those who truly love God receive the life of 
God 's own love into their hearts ; and this love, whether 
originally in God or derivatively in God's true children, " 
is a love that embraces all. Like God who loves all, we 
too, if "partakers of the Divine nature," shall love all 
men, even as we love ourselves. 

Our love of benevolence to man should not be merely 
•''for God's sake," as some -teach. Does God for his 
own sake love man ? The thought is so at variance with 



236 V/ORDS IN SEASON. 

the Divine character as to seem almost blasphemy ; it 
makes the all-loving Lord an infinite self-love. God 
loves man for man's own sake ; for the sake of what He 
can do for man, give to man, bless man with. But if we 
become partakers of God's own love and grow like God, 
we too shall love man for his own sake, for the sake of 
the help we can render him, the blessings or- the comfort 
we can aid him in receiving. Of course in this ministry 
of love to man, the joy attendant on the exercise of be- 
nevolent affections will be ours ; but this thought must not 
be present with us as a motive, or it will impart a selfish 
quality to our actions, and deprive us of the joy we seek. 
To do good to others for the sake of the happiness it will 
bring to us, is not really to love our neighbor, but our- 
selves alone. Hence we are taught to "do good, hoping 
for nothing again." 

Love to God and the neighbor, if genuine, will be 
fruitful in good works. True love is not a mere sen- 
timent — an idle, dreamy, contemplative thing. It must 
be up and doing. The Divine love is unceasingly active. 
It required the existence of other beings who might be 
the objects and recipients of this love. So too, the love 
of God and the neighbor kindled in the human soul will 
seek avenues of expression. If we love God we shall 
keep his commandments. John xiv. 21. If we love ?nan we 
shall seek to do him good. 1 John iii. 18. 

Our sense of the necessity and importance of these 
loves will be enhanced by the consideration that they 
are intended to be eternal in their duration. They are 
not only useful in this life to ourselves and our fellow- 



LOVE TO GOD AND THE NEIGHBOR. 237 

men, but they are the very life of angels and our only 
passport to the heavenly world. 

It is then a most momentous question — How may 
these loves, so essential not only to our welfare here, 
but to our happiness hereafter, be acquired ? Although 
there are many difficulties connected with the mode and 
conditions of man's reception of life from God, yet we 
are not without an answer to this question which all may 
understand and act upon. The Lord Himself is con- 
tinually in the desire and endeavor to communicate to 
man the life of his own love. The actual communica- 
tion of this life is limited, not by the Lord's willingness 
to impart, but by man's capacity to receive. It is a law 
of man's nature that he is receptive of good affections 
from the Lord only so far as their opposites are removed. 
The Lord alone is able to remove man's evil loves ; but 
He can do this only so far as man in freedom resists 
them in himself, and abstains from evil actions as sins 
against the Lord. In proportion then as a man from 
this motive mortifies his selfish and worldly loves, ever 
looking to the Lord for help, the love of God and the 
neighbor will be shed abroad in his heart and be mani- 
fested in his words and deeds. 



PRAYER. 

Almighty God, the Fountain of life and the Giver of 
every good and perfect gift, we praise Thee for all thy 
mercies, temporal and spiritual ; for our creation, pre- 
servation, and all the blessings of this life, but above all 



238 WORDS IN SEASON. 

for thy boundless love in having formed us with ca- 
pacities for the reception of thy Love and Wisdom, and 
thus for becoming images and likenesses of Thyself. 

Inspire us with gratitude for all thy many mercies, yet 
raise our hearts above this, the beginning and foundation 
of love. Enable us to see Thee as Thou art, in the 
loveliness of thine own nature, so that, enamored of thy 
Divine perfections, we may love Thee for thine own 
sake. May we be willing, for thy sake and for the sake 
of thy gospel, to lay down our old life of selfish and 
worldly loves, that we may receive from Thee the new 
life of love to Thee and love to our neighbor. Give us 
grace to show forth our love to Thee, not only with our 
lips but also in our lives, ever bearing in mind that if a 
man love Thee he will keep thy commandments. Help 
us to love one another with a pure heart fervently, not 
in word only, but in deed and in truth ; for hereby we 
know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts 
before Thee. And as Thou, Lord, lovest others for their 
sakes, and desirest to be one with them and to make 
them happy from Thyself, so may our love to others 
resemble thine. 

Thus being rooted and grounded in love, may we be 
prepared to dwell with Thee in the happy regions of love 
and peace in thy heavenly and eternal kingdom. Amen. 




XXXIX. 

THE LORD'S GLORIFICATION THE PATTERN AND 
THE EFFICIENT CA USE OF MAN "S REGENERA TION. 

"Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things 
which He suffered ; and being made perfect, He became the Author 
of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him." — Hebrews v. 8. 9, 

jHE great fundamental doctrine of the New Testa- 
ment is this : In order to redeem and save man- 
kind, God took upon Himself a human nature 
which was born of the virgin Mary ; through victories in 
temptation, this human nature became more and more 
fully one with the Divine nature ; until, perfected through 
sufferings, it was filled with all the fullness of the God- 
head, and exalted far above all heavens to be the ever- 
lasting medium of Divine influences to angels and men. 

This process, by which the human nature of Christ was 
made one with the Divine which dwelt within it, is termed 
the glorification of Christ. It consisted in the opening of 
his human capacities, by the continuous removal of all in- 
herited conditions that could limit or resist the influx of 
the Divine life ; and in the continuous descent of the full- 
ness of the Godhead from the inmost even to the ultimates 
of the perfected humanity, until the human consciousness 
became altogether one with the Divine. The real opera- 

239 



240 WORDS IN SEASON. 

tor was God working within the human nature in which 
He was incarnate ; for Jesus received continually from the 
Divine Father who dwelt in Him, the power both to will 
and to do. Thus our Lord says, " Believest thou not that 
I am in the Father and the Father in me ? the words that 
I speak unto you I speak not of myself ; but the Father 
that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works." John xiv. 10. 
It is true that the fundamental union of the Godhead with 
the manhood in the person of Christ, was effected by 
the incarnation; but by the process of glorification the 
union became reciprocal, embracing both the conscious- 
ness of Christ as God, and the consciousness of Christ as 
man. 

The human nature of Christ was progressively glorified, 
through victories in temptation. " For it became Him, 
for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in 
bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of 
their salvation perfect through sufferings. For in that He 
Himself hath suffered, being tempted, He is able to suc- 
cor them that are tempted." Heb. ii. 10, 18. The life 
of the Lord on earth was a continual temptation and a 
continual victory. By most grievous conflicts with the 
powers of darkness, the last of which was the passion of 
the cross, He reduced all things in Himself to order, re- 
moving successively all those hereditary conditions which 
rendered Him accessible to temptation and limited or re- 
sisted the influx of the Divine life. Hence after his ascen- 
sion, the Lord Jesus said, "lam Alpha and Omega, the 
beginning and the ending, which is, and which was, and 
which is to come, the Almighty" (Rev. i. 8); thereby 
asserting that the union of the Godhead and the manhood 



THE LORD'S GLORIFICATION. 24 1 

in his glorious person was complete. Thenceforth God 
in his glorified humanity was to be the sole object 
of worship ; not God as before the incarnation, but God 
in Christ, the Father in the Son. 

The glorification of the Lord's human nature is the 
pattern of man's regeneration. For, 

(1) The means are the same — viz., the achieving of vic- 
tories over all evil assailing Him and us in the form of 
temptation. 

(2) The operator is the same — viz., God working in us 
as in the human nature of Christ both to will and to do. 

(3) The mode is the same — viz., the opening of the 
capacities of his human nature and ours to the influx of 
the Divine life. 

(4) The result is the same — that is, the same in kind, 
though differing in degree — we being finite recipients of 
the Divine fullness which dwells infinitely in Him. 

Thus Christ is truly "the Captain of our salvation," in 
whose steps we have to walk. As He had to be "made 
perfect through sufferings" before He could "enter into 
his glory," so we must " suffer with Him, that we may be 
also glorified together. ' ' And to all who are toiling after 
Him in the strait and steep and rugged pathway of re- 
generation, He says: "To him that overcometh will I 
grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also over- 
came, and am set down with my Father in his throne." 
Rev. hi. 21. 

The Lord's glorification is not only the pattern, but 
the efficient cause of man's regeneration. 

Prior to the incarnation, the influx of Divine life into 
man was mediately through the heavens. God imparted 
21 Q 



242 WORDS IN SEASON. 

his Divine gifts through the instrumentality of angels who 
were in spiritual conjunction with mankind. But as suc- 
ceeding generations of men grew more and more corrupt, 
this conjunction became less intimate and less general. 
At length the world became so depraved that, with the 
exception of " a very small remnant" conjunction with 
the heavens could no longer be maintained. The powers 
of hell had risen to such a height that they were taking 
possession not only of the souls, but also of the bodies of 
men. Universal destruction was imminent ; "the fullness 
of time was come;" it wa,s the great, the tremendous 
crisis in the history of mankind. Then it was, when the 
whole human race was in danger of perishing, that God 
became incarnate. In the person of "the man Christ 
Jesus" He met and conquered the infernal powers; re- 
duced to order the world of spirits, by judgment on all 
who had gathered there since the days of Noah; and 
having glorified his humanity, He thereby made it a new 
medium by which He could reach men in their degraded 
condition, and operate upon them by influx adapted to 
their state. Through this new medium — the glorified 
humanity of Jesus Christ — as his great instrument of 
power, the Lord now subdues and rules the hells, pre- 
serves and arranges the heavens, sustains and governs the 
universe, and sheds down continually his life-giving influ- 
ences on mankind. 

The end for which the human nature of Christ was 
" made perfect," was that He might become " the Author 
of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him." 

Obedience, in its full significance, is the devotion of 
the whole man to the service of God. It therefore in- 



THE LORD'S GLORIFICATION. 243 

eludes the obedience of the affectional faculties, which 
is love ; the obedience of the intellectual faculties, which 
is faith; and the obedience of the operative faculties, 
which is good works. And to those who thus obey Him, 
Christ is "the Author of eternal salvation," not by an 
arbitrary condition, but by a necessary law. For obedi- 
ence, thus rendered, opens man' 's threefold nature to the 
reception of life from the Lord — the affectional faculties 
to the influx of Divine Love, the intellectual faculties to 
the influx of Divine Wisdom, and the operative faculties 
to the influx of Divine Power. And it is by this com- 
munication of. life from the Lord, according to the capacity 
of reception, that man is regenerated on earth, and made 
meet for the services and joys of heaven. 

This doctrine of the Lord's glorification and its con- 
sequences to mankind, is identical with what is sometimes 
called* the doctrine of the "Atonement." 

For in Christ, as the representative man, human nature 
was made at-one with the Divine nature, through suffer- 
ings and death; in order that we, through fellowship 
with his sufferings and conformity to his death, might be 
made at-one with God from whom we were separated by 
sin. Christ's atoning work is not the moving cause, but 
the expression of the Divine benevolence toward man. 
It is not a contrivance to reconcile conflicting attributes, 
or to propitiate an angry God, but a scheme originated 
by Divine Love, planned by Divine Wisdom, and exe- 
cuted by Divine Power, to bring back into union with 
the All-loving Father those "that were alienated, and 
enemies in their mind by wicked works." Col. i. 21. 



244 WORDS IN SEASON. 



PRAYER. 



O Lord Jesus Christ, Thou art the eternal God, the 
Creator and Preserver of mankind, the Redeemer and 
Saviour of thy people, the Giver of all spiritual grace, 
and the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that 
obey Thee. We, thy unworthy servants, desire to praise 
Thee for all the manifestations of thy goodness toward us. 
But above all we bless thy holy name that Thou didst 
descend on earth in man's nature, and by victories in 
temptation didst glorify thy humanity, thereby making it 
a new medium through which we may approach thy 
Divine majesty, and receive out of thy fullness grace 
according to our needs. 

May we prove that we are thy disciples by taking 
up our cross daily, and crucifying the flesh with its 
affections and lusts. And as thy humanity was* made 
perfect through suffering, so may we in faith and pa- 
tience follow Thee in the path Thou hast trod before 
us, knowing that if we suffer with Thee we shall be also 
glorified with Thee. 

Thou, O Lord, wast exalted far above all heavens that 
Thou mightest fill all things. May we receive such an 
abundant influx of life from Thee, as may enable us to 
resist and overcome the temptations of the world, the flesh, 
and the devil, to live as thy redeemed people, and to walk 
in all thy commandments and ordinances blameless. 

Thus, following Thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, and re- 
ceiving of thy Spirit, may we find in Thee strength and 
righteousness, consolation and joy, and all the blessings 
of salvation. Amen. 



XL. 




CREA TION AND PRESER VA TION. 

" Thou, even Thou, art Lord alone ; Thou hast made heaven, the 
heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that 
are therein, the seas, and all that is therein ; and Thou preservest 
them all."— Nehemiah ix. 6. 

| HE natural and spiritual universe, the earths and 
the heavens, are the handiwork of God. God 
Himself asserts creation to be His work — " For 
thus saith the Lord that created the heavens : God Him- 
self that formed the earth and made it ; He hath estab- 
lished it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to 
be inhabited : I am the Lord ; and there is none else. ' ' 
Isa. xlv. 1 8. Jesus, in the New Testament, who is 
Jehovah in the Old Testament, is in like manner de- 
clared to be the Maker of all things — ' ' All things were 
made by Him ; and without Him was not anything 
made that was made." John i. 3. 

The moving cause of creation was the Divine Love. 
The Lord did not create the universe for his own sake, 
but because He desired the existence of beings in his 
own image and likeness whom He might make happy 
from Himself. Hence the ultimate Divine purpose in 
creation, is the formation of a heaven out of the human 
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246 WORDS IN SEASON. 

race. Thus earth rightly regarded, is the seminary of 
heaven — the scene in which man begins to exist, and in 
which he may develop an angelic character to fit him 
for the higher uses and the more exalted felicities of the 
eternal world. 

Of the several views which have been held as to that 
out of which God created all things, one is — that He 
made all things of nothing : another is — that He formed 
all things of pre-existent substance which was co-eternal 
with Him, but was not Himself. The first view appears 
to involve a contradiction ; and to the second there is 
the grave objection that it assigns the Divine attribute 
of self-existence to that which is not God. There is a 
third view which, though not without difficulty, has the 
advantage of being explicitly taught by the apostolic 
word — that God created all things out of Himself. Thus 
we read " of Him [literally, out of Him] and through 
Him and to Him are ~all things. ' ' Rom. xi. 36 ; and 
"to us there is but one God the Father, of whom 
[literally out of whom] are all things." 1 Cor. viii. 6. 
God is the only self-existent Being, and all things and 
beings other than God, were created by Him — not out of 
nothing, not out of self-existent substance distinct from 
the Divine, but — out of Himself . 

It may be objected that this asserts that all things 
which God has made are Divine. This does not neces- 
sarily follow. All things are Divine in their origin, 
because they are produced from God by God ; but the 
very act of putting them forth from Himself makes them 
cease to be continuous with God, and therefore makes 
them not Divine. There are three discrete degrees of sub- 



CREATION AND PRESERVATION. 247 

stance — viz., the Divine, the Spiritual, and the Natural; 
the substance of God Himself, the substance of the souls 
of men and of the spiritual world, and the substance of 
the natural universe and of all things therein. In the 
order of creation, the natural was discreted from the 
spiritual, and the spiritual from the Divine. The Divine 
can act upon or into the spiritual ; and the spiritual can 
act upon or into the natural ; but by no process of trans- 
mutation or refinement can the natural become the 
spiritual, or the spiritual become the Divine. By this 
doctrine of discrete degrees of substance we avoid the 
fundamental error of Pantheism, while adopting the 
great truth which it so imperfectly expresses. The 
Creator is not confounded with the creation, for the 
substance of the universe is not continuous from God. 
Yet God is truly the original and all-pervading life — 
animating the spiritual degree of substance, which is the 
indwelling and actuating principle of all material things. 
Granting that this is the order of creation, it follows 
that, while God is the Great First Cause of all things 
that exist, the spiritual world exists in the natural as a 
cause in its effect. The spiritual world is a world of 
mediate, causes acting in the natural world, but deriving 
all its power from the Great First Cause, from whom it 
originated and by whom it continually subsists. Matter 
itself, the ultimate created substance, is dead and inert ; 
and all forces by which its inertia is overcome, and all the 
active properties which it seems to possess, have a spirit- 
ual origin. All natural objects exist from and are 
actuated by corresponding spiritual essences, to which they 
stand related as the body of a man to his soul. Hence all 



248 WORDS IN SEASON. 

things in the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms of 
nature have their antitypes in the spiritual world, sub- 
stantial spiritual entities corresponding in all particulars 
of organization with their material types. 

This doctrine of influx from the spiritual world ac- 
counts for the existence of inverted or disorderly crea- 
tions in the material universe. None of the noxious 
things that exist on this earth were created by the Lord 
in the beginning, but they are all from hell. For, by 
the law of spiritual causation, the affections and thoughts 
of the inhabitants of the spiritual world give birth to 
corresponding spiritual creations, which form the objects 
and scenery round about them. It is through the op- 
eration of this beneficent law, that the members of each 
heavenly society are surrounded by the beautiful and 
useful objects (spiritual, of course) in the animal, veg- 
etable, and mineral kingdoms, which are in harmony 
with their mental and moral states. But the same law 
of spiritual causation prevails equally in hell, where, 
consequently, the inhabitants of each infernal society 
see their falsities and evils projected into corresponding 
external objects, which are inversions of the orderly cre- 
ations of the heavenly world. These spiritual inversions, 
flowing into the world of nature, became embodied in 
material substance and originate the various types of 
animals, vegetables, and minerals injurious to man. 

God is the Preserver as well as the first Creator of all 
things. The universe once created has no self-sustaining 
power, but is dependent on its Creator for continued ex- 
istence. The natural creation subsists from the spiritual, 
but all things in the spiritual world are preserved in being 



CREATION AND PRESERVATION. 249 

by the unceasing efflux of life from God. Relatively to 
natural things, spiritual essences are living; but rela- 
tively to God, both spiritual and natural things are 
dead. Only by the inflowing of life from God, and that 
from moment to moment, are either the spiritual essences 
or their material forms preserved in being and enabled to 
fulfill the purposes of their existence. 

Contemplating these truths, it may well be said that 
creation declares the glory of God. All nature in its 
orderly forms is a transcript of the Divine mind, a mirror 
in which we may see the Divine perfections revealed, a 
series of ultimate images whose antitypes exist in heaven 
and whose archetypes are the thoughts of Deity. Having 
come forth from God, and being sustained by the life- 
giving presence of God, who dwells in the inmost of every- 
thing, all created things may lift the soul to the contem- 
plation of their Creator and Preserver, and help us to 
form a more worthy conception of his all-embracing 
Love, his infinite Wisdom, and his almighty Power. 



PRAYER. 

O God, whose name is excellent in all the earth, and 
whose glory is above the heavens ; we bow before thy ex- 
cellent Majesty with reverence and godly fear. Thou, 
even Thou, art Lord alone; Thou hast made heaven, 
the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and 
all things that are therein, the seas and all that is therein, 
and Thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven 
worshipeth Thee. Thine infinite love desired the exist- 



250 WORDS IN SEASON. 

ence of creatures on whom Thou mightest bestow the 
bounties of thy goodness. Thou hast created us to bear 
thine own image and likeness by the reception of thy love 
and wisdom ; and Thou hast placed us for a while on earth 
that we may be prepared to dwell with Thee eternally in 
the heavens. Help us ever to bear in mind thy loving 
purpose concerning us, and to press toward the mark of 
the prize of our high calling. 

When we look around upon the glorious scenes of crea- 
tion, give unto us to perceive in them the evidences of thy 
eternal power and Godhead. Let natural things be unto 
us a mirror in which spiritual things are reflected. En- 
able us to discern in creation the image of its Divine 
Creator, to see in all its orderly forms the transcripts of 
thy love and wisdom, reminding us of thy presence, and 
lifting up our minds to the adoring contemplation of Thy- 
self. And when we look upon those disorderly and evil 
things which deface thy glorious creation, may we humble 
ourselves in thy sight, O Lord, and feel what an evil and 
bitter thing it is to sin against Thee. 

O Thou who didst cause the light to shine out of dark- 
ness, shine into our hearts ; raise us out of the ruin and 
degradation of our fallen state; and renew us in thine 
image and likeness in this life, that in the world to come 
we may have life everlasting. Amen. 



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